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Australian bird habitats:
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Description of habitat |
Significant rain events in the mostly flat interior of the Australian continent lead to flows of large amounts of water in watercourses many of which will at some point fall dry again. Remnant water surfaces will remain for some time in many shallow depressions - these are called ephemeral wetlands (see also ephemeral lakes). Some species of aquatic birds never fail to find these wet areas as a place to stay for as long as possible.
There is a separate page describing permanently water-logged areas, i.e. swamps.
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Bird species found in this type of habitat or plant |
This is not necessarily a complete list. We display here some examples of bird species found by us in this kind of habitat or plant. Hover your cursor on thumbnails to see names of species; click on thumbnail to go to the page describing the species.
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Photos |
Temporarily water-logged grassland in a shallow depression
in outback NSW
One can still see that this shallow depression has been used in the
past as a wheat field,
but the reeds lining the waterhole indicate that it is wet most of
the time
Wide-angle view of a shallow, usually dry,
creek
crossing a road
in inland NSW after a major rainfall event; water can stand there
for months, giving aquatic birds enough time to breed
Overview of the abundance of birdlife in an ephemeral wetland,
in this case a temporarily submerged commercial
cropping field,
in inland NSW months after a major flood event
