highlights

Highlights - Wildlife

Photographic Montage of Birdlife, flowers and plants found in the Rylstone - Kandos Region One of the many Honey Eaters found throughout the district. This honeyeater is an active bird, and rarely sits still long enough to give an extended view. A Wollemi Pine in its natural environment, one of the world's oldest and rarest plants dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. The flower of the Austral Ladie's Tresses is a beautiful spiralling orchid which can be found alongside wet areas in January. These beautiful Fairy Wrens are a common sight throughout the district, seen in most habitat types where suitable dense cover and low shrubs occur. The Kookaburra is an ever popular Aussie icon, often becoming quite tame around humans and will readily accept scraps of meat. A rare plant of NSW which can only be found in several areas in the Western Blue Mountains, occuring in only 20 locations. The flower sprays are 8 to 40 cm long and produced in summer. The Golden Whistler can be found in almost any wooded habitat, from rainforest to mallee, but prefers the denser areas. Occasionally it visits parks and orchards. A close up detail of the Wollemi Pine flower head, each mature tree produces both male and female cones. Another rare plant that can be found in the Dunn's Swamp area. The flowers appear in late winter and spring, on low shrubs growing about 1m high. Gang-gang Cockatoos feed mainly on seeds of native and introduced trees and shrubs, with a preference for eucalypts, wattles and introduced hawthorns.They undergo seasonal altitudinal migration from high forests to lower areas during winter.

Download a lists of Birdlife seen around the Rylstone-Kandos district

Photos: © Gay Summers, Brent Barlow, Rylstone Regional Tourism Association.