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Australian bird habitats:
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Description of habitat |
Roads and roadsides provide habitats that are diverse enough for a considerable number of bird species to live there permanently. And while many birds are killed by cars, others take advantage of the hazards that traffic brings with it, by scavenging for roadkill, from small insects bouncing off cars' windscreens to large mammals, such as e.g. kangaroos. Others make use of roadside vegetation, including weeds. Some structures, such as e.g. bridges, also provide various bird species with nesting places. Which bird spcecies can be found by roadsides obviously depends to a large degree on what landscape - and what part of the continent - a road passes through. There are also differences between bird species found along sealed and unsealed roads.
Cockatoo species listed here usually pick up grain from roads that has been lost by trucks, whereas parrots are after grass seeds on the roadside.
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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 |
Road in outback NSW, with roadside vegetation of
grassland,
some scrub and
open woodland
In the photo below the sunflowers will attract parrots, while the grass and weeds attract small birds, such as e.g. fairy-wrens and finches.
Dirt road in inland NSW, with roadside vegetation of
tall grass,
weeds and escape commercial crop seeds, in this case sunflowers,
with some wilgas
along the fence line
Dirt road in outback NSW, with roadside vegetation of
grass,
some scrub and
open woodland
Australian Pipit
on an outback road
Yellow Thornbill
in the remnants of last year's roadside weeds
Zebra Finches
in the remnants of last year's roadside weeds
Fairy Martin nests
under a road bridge
Great Egret emerging
from a temporarily flooded roadside ditch
[Near Moree, NSW, June 2013]
Golden-headed Cisticola
on a roadside fence
[Eulah Creek, NSW, December 2013]
Australian Pratincoles
are often found in habitats without vegetation,
such as e.g. gibber,
fallow fields, or,
as shown here, roadsides (photo courtesy of C. Hayne)
[Near Moree, NSW, December 2013]
