Natural Park

Another weird creature unique to Australia is also one of the largest birds called the emu. Its name roots from a Portuguese word “emma”, which means “a large bird”. The male emu can often stand as high as 2 meters, earning the eminent title of being Australia’s largest bird.

Australia's birdlife is among the world's richest, with around 740 different species, 60% of which are endemic to the continent and its islands. Flashes of color in the bush, accompanied by a cacophony of raucous squawking, signal the presence of tightly-packed flocks of one or more of Australia's 55 parrot species.

Among the world's most unusual ayes is the famous Australian lyrebird, with its lyre-shaped plumes and mimicking calls that can perfectly copy even such sounds as chainsaws and ambulence sirens. Equally beautiful are the many birds of paradise, which show off their striking plumage in tropical northern Queensland and Arnhemland in the Northern Territory.

A more familiar creature is the brown-and-grey emu, which stands six feet/two m high and is only second in stature to its distant cousin the ostrich. While the females of this tall, flightless species do the work of egg-laying, it's the males who take over the nest for the two-month incubation period and primarily raise the chicks for six months after they hatch. Australia's other flightless species, the cassowary, is almost as tall. lives in the rainforests of tropical Queensland, and can be identified by its bright blue crest and red wattle.

A smaller but equally well-known native is the kookaburra, the largest bird in the kingfisher family, whose bubbly, melodious call was the inspiration for the country's famous ditty. The malice fowl is another unique Australian creature whose nesting habits have inspired much amazement among biologists worldwide. The females of this chicken-like bird dig a deep mound in wann sand and rotting plant matter, then lay their eggs. The males then take over to bury them and keep the temperature 92-94'F/33-35'C inside the homemade incubator for the next two months. How does the bird measure the exact temperature? With his heat-sensitive tongue and bill, which he sticks into the fermenting mound like a thermometor. As each chick hatches, the male digs it out and brushes it off, then adjusts the interior temperature by adding or scratching away toppings.

Hunting birds cruise over the flat deserts and the bald, rounded slopes of the Outback ranges. Wedge-tailed eagles recognizeable by their satiny black wing feathers, soft brown head and breast., and sharp grey beak have glided over the continent for cons, as shown in Aboriginal rock paintings and the feathers of ancient ceremonial attire. If you're camping along the tropical north coast, stay tuned for the barking owl, which preys on small rainforest marsupials. Around the coasts you'll see black shearwaters, ducks, geese, herons, gulls, albatrosses, and gannets. One of Australia's most striking waterbirds is the endemic black swan, which is found in groups of hundreds around lakeshores and city park ponds.