|
Macquarie Pass National Park
Macquarie Pass National Park is a national park in New South Wales, Australia, 90 km southwest of Sydney. It is located around the pass of the same name, which is on the Illawarra Highway and part of the Illawarra escarpment. Macquarie Pass National Park was established in 1970 and protects a range of eucalypt forests and rainforest, including one of Australia's most southerly stands of subtropical rainforest. The pass was opened in 1898 and has been a major route into and out of the Illawarra coastal plain ever since. There is a major power line running east–west through the park. As well as a diverse array of birdlife, the park has swamp wallabies and wombats. History The area was heavily logged for cedar in the first half of the 19th century. Facilities Picnic facilities are provided at two sites at the bottom of Macquarie Pass. Barbecues are provided at two other picnic areas. Walking tracks The Macquarie Rivulet track is two kilometres long and easy to medium g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral Sea, Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. The Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory are Enclave and exclave, enclaves within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, which is also Australia's most populous city. , the population of New South Wales was over 8.3 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Almost two-thirds of the state's population, 5.3 million, live in the Greater Sydney area. The Colony of New South Wales was founded as a British penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised more than half of the Australian mainland with its Western Australia border, western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825. The colony then also includ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rose Robin
The rose robin (''Petroica rosea'') is a small passerine bird native to Australia. Like many brightly coloured robins of the Petroicidae, it is sexually dimorphic. The male has a distinctive pink breast. Its upperparts are dark grey with white frons, and its tail black with white tips. The underparts and shoulder are white. The female is an undistinguished grey-brown. The robin has a small black bill and eyes. It is endemic to Australia east or south of the Great Dividing Range, from Queensland through to southeastern South Australia. Its natural habitats are the gullies and valleys of temperate forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Taxonomy Like all Australian robins, the rose robin is not closely related to either the European robin or the American robin, but belongs rather to the Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines, including pardalotes, fairywrens and honeyeaters, as well as crows. It belongs to the genus ''Petroica'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Powerful Owl
The powerful owl (''Ninox strenua''), a species of owl native to south-eastern and eastern Australia, is the largest owl on the continent. It is found in coastal areas and in the Great Dividing Range, rarely more than inland. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species also refers to this species as the powerful boobook. An apex predator in its narrow distribution, powerful owls are often opportunists, like most predators, but generally are dedicated to hunting arboreal mammals, in particular small to medium-sized marsupials. Such prey can comprise about three-quarters of their diet. Generally, this species lives in primary forests with tall, native trees, but can show some habitat flexibility when not nesting. The powerful owl is a typically territorial raptorial bird that maintains a large home range and has long intervals between egg-laying and hatching of clutches. Also, like many types of raptorial birds, they must survive a long stretch to independence in young owls after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Goshawk
The grey goshawk (''Tachyspiza novaehollandiae'') is a strongly built, medium-sized bird of prey in the family ''Accipitridae'' that is found in eastern and northern Australia. The white polymorphism (biology), morph of this species is known as the white goshawk. This species was formerly placed in the genus ''Accipiter''. Taxonomy The grey goshawk was Species description, formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the eagles, hawks and relatives in the genus ''Falco (bird), Falco'' and coined the binomial nomenclature, binomial name ''Falco novaehollandiae''. Gmelin based his description on the "New Holland white eagle" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham (ornithologist), John Latham. Latham in turn had based his short description on information provided by Johann Reinhold Forster, Johann Forster who had accompanied ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian King Parrot
The Australian king parrot (''Alisterus scapularis'') is a species of parrot endemic to eastern Australia ranging from Cooktown in Queensland to Port Campbell in Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Found in humid and heavily forested upland regions of the eastern portion of the continent, including eucalyptus wooded areas in and directly adjacent to subtropical and temperate rainforest. They feed on fruits and seeds gathered from trees or on the ground. Taxonomy The Australian king parrot was first described by the German naturalist Martin Lichtenstein in 1816 as ''Psittacus scapularis''. The species belongs to the genus ''Alisterus'', whose three members are also known as king parrots. The species are sometimes allied to the genus ''Aprosmictus''. Two subspecies are recognised, which are differentiated by size: *''A. s. minor'' (Mathews, 1911) *''A. s. scapularis'' (Lichtenstein, 1816) Naturally-occurring hybrids with the red-winged parrot (''Aprosmictus erythropterus'') have been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wonga Pigeon
The wonga pigeon or wonga wonga (''Leucosarcia melanoleuca'') is a pigeon that inhabits areas in eastern Australia with its range being from Central Queensland to Gippsland, eastern Victoria, Australia. Distribution and habitat Previously they could be found as far north as Cairns and as far south as the Dandenongs, but due to land clearance, shootings in the 1940s for crop protection, and fox predation, they are rarely seen in these areas, but their populations have improved. Description The wonga pigeon is a large, plump pigeon that has a short neck, broad wings, and a long tail. Its length varies from 38 to 40 centimetres (15.2 to 16 inches). It has pastel blue-grey back feathers. The head fades to a creamy-white colour. The underside is white with dotted dark grey spots such that a white V can be seen on its chest. Their eyes are a dark red-brown colour and they have pink eye-rings that encircle them. Legs are red and the sexes appear identical but immature pigeons are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown Cuckoo-dove
The brown cuckoo-dove (''Macropygia phasianella'') is a dove in the genus ''Macropygia'' found in Australia from Weipa and Aurukun in the north to Bega in the south, and most inland at Atherton and Toowoomba. It is sometimes called the "brown pigeon" or "pheasant pigeon", but both terms are best avoided, as they can lead to confusion with the brown doves and the true pheasant pigeon. It was one of three new species defined when the slender-billed cuckoo-dove was split in 2016. Taxonomy The brown cuckoo-dove was formally described in 1821 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck from a specimen collected near Port Jackson in New South Wales, Australia. He coined the binomial name ''Columba phasianella''. The specific name is a diminutive of the Latin ''phasianus'', meaning "pheasant". The brown cuckoo-dove is now placed in the genus ''Macropygia'', which was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1837. Three subspecies are recognised: * ''M. p. quinkan' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topknot Pigeon
The topknot pigeon (''Lopholaimus antarcticus'') is a pigeon native to eastern Australia. Taxonomy English naturalist George Shaw described the topknot pigeon as ''Columba antarctica'' in 1793. The topknot pigeon is sister taxon to a lineage that gave rise to the mountain pigeons (''Gymnophaps'') of New Guinea, the common ancestor of both diverged from a lineage that gave rise to the kererū and Chatham pigeon. "Topknot pigeon" has been designated the official common name by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC); John Gould noted in 1848 that it had been given this name by the colonists of New South Wales. It is also known by the name of "flock pigeon". Description The topknot pigeon is a large predominately slate-grey bird, in length. The back, coverts and upper secondaries are a darker slate-grey with black quills. The primaries are black, the remaining body in a lighter slate-grey in colour. The chest and hind neck are notched, showing dark bases giving a strea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bassian Thrush
The Bassian thrush (''Zoothera lunulata''), also known as the olive-tailed thrush, is a medium-sized mostly insectivorous thrush found from northern Queensland to southeastern Australia. It also occurs in Tasmania, on some larger islands of Bass Strait, and on Kangaroo Island. The thrushes range from in length and average in weight. It is estimated that the range-wide population is large, though no official count has ever been established. The population appears to be declining because of ongoing habitat destruction and degradation, but not at a rate that is concerning. The Bassian thrush lives in shrubland, forests, and rainforests. It appears to be a resident species, but there is some evidence that some individuals have nomadic tendencies, usually in the non-breeding season. The thrush ranges in colour from brown to olive, with a white ring around its eyes and black bars on its back, rear, and head. Its underbody is paler, with dark scalloping, and its wings have a dark ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-throated Treecreeper
The white-throated treecreeper (''Cormobates leucophaea'') is an Australian treecreeper found in the forests of eastern Australia. It is also called Dilmun in the Gathang language of the Worimi people, who reside in eastern Port Stephens and Great Lakes regions of coastal New South Wales, Australia. The Dilmun is the totem of Worimi women. It is unrelated to the northern hemisphere treecreepers. It is a small passerine bird with predominantly brown and white plumage and measuring some 15 cm (6 in) long on average. It is insectivorous, eating mainly ants. Unlike treecreepers of the genus ''Climacteris'', the white-throated treecreeper does not engage in cooperative breeding, and wherever it overlaps with species of that genus, it feeds upon much looser bark besides typically using different trees. Taxonomy It was first described by ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as ''Certhia leucophaea''. For many years it was classified in the genus ''Climacteris''. The generic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crimson Rosella
The crimson rosella (''Platycercus elegans'') is a parrot native to eastern and south eastern Australia which has been introduced to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. It is commonly found in, but not restricted to, mountain forests and gardens. The species as it now stands has subsumed two former separate species, the yellow rosella and the Adelaide rosella. Molecular studies show one of the three red-coloured races, ''P. e. nigrescens'', is genetically more distinct. Taxonomy The crimson rosella was Species description, formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the parrots in the genus ''Psittacus'' and coined the binomial nomenclature, binomial name ''Psittacus elegans''. This Latin name had been used in 1605 by the Flemish people, Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius in his book ''Exoticorum libri decem'' for the hawk-headed parrot, however this predates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
