Birds

The abundance of birds is obvious to any visitor and the number of recorded species in the KGR is about one third of the Australian total. The Berowra valley has 171 native birds recorded, and Long Reef has 136. There are overlaps between these two lists but the numbers support the overall picture presented by the Atlas.

Different birds are found in different environments, those in the forests and woodlands are quite distinct from those in the estuary and along the coast. Forest and woodland birds can be divided according to their life styles:

• Nectar feeders, such as the rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) and 28 different honey eaters. Several of the honey eaters travel along the east coast following mass flowering of eucalypts in Summer.
• Insect eaters such as the superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus), brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusila), fantails (Rhiphidura), and willie wagtail (Rhiphidura leucophrys).
• The seed eaters include all the parrots especially sulphur-crested (Cacatua galerita), black and glossy (Calyptorhynchus ) cockatoos. Their strong bills break open hard woody fruits and consume seeds from acacias, casuarina, hakeas and eucalypts.
• Trees that produce berries and fruit attract fruit-eaters such as: cuckoos (Cuculus and Cacomantis ), Australasian figbird (Sphecotheres vielloti), and satin bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus).
• Some of the larger birds like the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen), grey and pied butcherbirds (Cracticus), pied currawongs (Strepera graculina), laughing kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae), and the Australian raven (Corvus coronoides) eat insects as well as lizards and frogs. Dedicated birds of prey are less common, but you may see; owls (Ninox sp. and Tyto sp.), falcons (Falco sp.), black-shouldered kites (Elanus axillaris), white-bellied sea eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster), or osprey (Pandion haliaetus).

A few birds are tied to particular geological environments. Superb lyre birds (Menura novaehollandiae) in Muogamarra love raking leaf litter downslope between large sandstone blocks, the little penguin (Eudyptula minor) nests under rocks on Lion Island, and perhaps the most remarkable link is the endemic rockwarbler (Origma solitaria) that is only found in and around Hawkesbury Sandstone outcrops and has its nearest relative in Papua New Guinea.