Birds of Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island is home to many birds. Coastal birds around Rottnest Island include the pied cormorant, osprey, pied oystercatcher, silver gulls, crested tern, fairy tern, bridled tern, rock parrot and reef heron.
About ten per cent of the eastern end of Rottnest Island is made up of salt lakes, containing brine shrimp. Brine Shrimp support a large number of birds such as the red-necked avocet, banded stilts, ruddy turnstone, curlew sandpiper, red-capped dotterel, Australian mountain duck, red-necked stint, grey plover, white-fronted chat, caspian terns and crested terns.
The red-necked stint (which weighs only 30 grams) - as well as the grey plover, ruddy turnstone, grey-tailed tattler and curlew sandpiper - is a transequitoral migrant which breeds in the Arctic Circle and flies to the southern hemisphere during the non-breeding season.
There are many sea birds around Rottnest Island, including the yellow-nosed albatross, the cape petrel, Wilson's storm petrel, Australian gannet, great skua and wedge-tailed shearwater. Of these only the wedge-tailed shearwater lands on the Island to breed in colonies of burrows at Cape Vlamingh and Radar Reef.
The birds of the Melaleuca and Acacia woodlands include the tree martin, welcome swallow, silvereye, spotted turtledove, laughing turtledove, fan-tailed cuckoo, red-capped robin, golden whistler, western warbler, singing honey eater and Australian raven.
Birds commonly found around the settlement area include the silver gull, Australian raven, sacred kingfisher and the banded plover (or lapwing). Peafowl, an introduced species released onto the Island in about 1915, can also be seen around the Settlement.
The osprey, nakeen kestrel and ring-necked pheasant favour the heath on Rottnest Island. The two to four pairs of osprey resident on Rottnest Island breed there every year, returning to their nests which are among the most durable structures in the world - one located at Salmon Point is estimate to be approximately 70 years old. The osprey nests are located at the highest point of a stack or headland, giving the birds a great vantage point.
The brackish swamps are home to the black duck and grey teal duck.