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Australian bird habitats:
Offshore island

Description of habitat

Offshore islands can offer birds safety from many external influences, such as e.g. natural predators, but also human interference (including the absence of introduced predators such as cats, dogs or foxes). To many bird species it does not even matter what kind of vegetation is present on such islands. In the example shown below, there is just some grass and a few shrubs. Such an island will attract mostly aquatic birds that may nest there. Other, more vegetated islands, will also attract birds that feed and/or breed there.

Tasmania, which is a major island with its own characteristic fauna and flora, is not included here as just an "offshore island".

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.

Photos

The example of an offshore island shown here is Bird Island Nature Reserve, off the coast of NSW, just to the north of Norah Head; note that other islands have a lot more vegetation, which explains why so many bird species are found on offshore islands (see above)

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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