Amazing Birds of Australia Trivia Quiz

Answer: Satin bowerbird

The male satin bowerbird will not successfully find a mate until he grows black-blue plumage at seven years. Till then, he spends his time practising bower building and displaying.
Fawn-breasted bowerbirds decorates the walls of its bower and platform with green berries, flowers and leaves.
The great bowerbird favours white objects such as shells and bones.
The regent bowerbird paints the bower walls yellow with saliva and juice from crushed leaves and decorates it with red-brown leaves, berries and shells.
Males with the best decorated bower will mate with more females.

Answer: Superb lyrebird

This bird is found in dense forests in coastal southeast Australia. The calls of the lyrebird are used to mark out territories, attract females and to keep other males away.
When fully spread out, the superb lyrebird's tail may cover 1.5m square.

Answer: Oystercatcher

The oystercatcher chicks learn to get limpets off rocks by copying their parents and become either 'knockers' or 'prisers'. Oystercatchers open bivalves by stabbing the muscles which hold the shells together with their beaks and then levering the shells open.

Answer: Brolga

The brolga is a type of crane that is found in northern and eastern Australia. It eats mainly water plants and tubers, roots of swamp sedges, some insects and crustaceans.
When pairs of male and female brolgas dance, they would shake their wings, bob their heads, leap into the air and make trumpeting noises. These dances help keep the brolgas together particularly during mating season.

Answer: Australian bustard

A male bustard is about 1.2m tall, has a wingspan of 2.3m and weighs over 8kg. Females are a bit smaller. A courting male bustard will inflate a neck pouch which touches the ground. He swings this from side to side as he stamps and roars to impress a female.

They were once common but hunting, predation by feral animals such as pigs and foxes, pesticides and habitat destruction have greatly reduced their numbers.

Answer: True

The female emu lays up to 15 very large, thick-shelled, dark-green eggs. The eggs are on average 134 x 89 millimeters (5.3 x 3.5 inches) and weigh between 700 and 900 grams (1.5-2 pounds). Over the 8 weeks that the male incubates the eggs, he will lose a third of his weight and will survive on stored body-fat and on any morning dew that he can reach from the nest.

Incubation stops shortly before the eggs hatch. Some female emus will stay and defend the nest until the chicks hatch, but most leave the nesting area to nest again.

In a good season, a female emu may nest three times. The emu is Australia's national bird (unofficial).

Answer: Bush stone-curlew

The Aboriginal name for the bush stone-curlew is 'willaroo', which is the sound of its wailing call. Its diet consists of small grassland animals: frogs, spiders, insects, mollusks, crustaceans, snakes, lizards and small mammals. It also eats a few seeds or tubers, particularly in drought years. When disturbed, it will freeze motionless in odd looking postures.

Answer: Comb-crested jacana

Both male and female jacanas are similar in appearance, but the female is larger than the male, and slightly brighter in colour. It feeds on aquatic insects, which it seizes from floating vegetation or the surface of the water. It also feeds on seeds and aquatic plants.

A female comb-crested jacana has a 'harem' of up to 5 males. It is the males who each take turns to incubate the eggs and then tend to the chicks. Females will challenge each other for territory and males.

Answer: Whistling kite

The whistling kite is also known as the whistling hawk and the whistling eagle and can be found throughout Australia except Tasmania. It derives its name from the loud whistling `chew-ew-ew' or `chuchiu-chiu' that it makes. It eats rabbits, small mammals, lizards, fish, sea-snakes, insects, caterpillars and occasionally unguarded poultry.

It also eats some insects and will wade in water to obtain dead fish.

Answer: Yellow-bellied sunbird

The yellow-bellied sunbird is also known as the olive-backed sunbird. Both male and female have bright yellow bellies and their backs are a dull brown colour. They dart and hover around flowers, feeding on nectar and small insects. Females lay one or two greenish-blue eggs.

The eggs take a week to hatch and both male and female care for the young, which leave the nest about two or three weeks later.

Answer: Jabiru

The legs of the jabiru are long and coral-red in colour. The female is distinguished by its yellow eyes. It inhabits wetlands, floodplains of rivers with large shallow swamps and pools, and deeper permanent bodies of water along coastal and near-coastal areas of northern and eastern Australia.

It feeds on fish, small crustaceans and amphibians. Its eggs are white and conical and are incubated by both parents who also care for the young.

Answer: Weebill

The weebill measures just 8cm - 9cm, the northern Australian birds are smaller than those in the south. Their name comes from the short, stubby, pale beak that they possess. Weebills are dull grey-brown on the head and olive-brown on the back, and the underparts are buff to yellow.

The birds in the south and east of the country are light brown, while in the north and inland they become paler and more yellow. It is found throughout mainland Australia and it inhabits almost any wooded area, except the wettest forests, but it favours open eucalypt forests.

It preys on insects.

Answer: Rufous fantail

The rufous fantail is found in northern and eastern coastal Australian rainforest, dense wet forests, swamp woodlands and mangroves. It is also found in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Sulawesi and Guam. It builds a small compact cup nest of fine grasses bound with spider webs and is suspended from a tree fork about 5 m from the ground. Both male and female share nest-building, incubation and feeding of the young.

Answer: Great crested grebe

The great crested grebe is is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its fish prey underwater. It has a repertoire of bird displays. It warns off a rival by 'threat-lurking' or 'threat-cruising'. It exhibits a 'sinister-dive' where it swims below the water surface to emerge bill first under an intruder. During courtship, it does a 'cat-display', with crest half raised, ruff opened and wings half spread.

A pair may then 'weed-dance', rising from the water with breasts touching and then swinging from side to side with weed in their bills.

Answer: Musk duck

Musk ducks are found only in Australia. Its tail is a collection of long, stiff feathers, which can be held in a fan-shape. The lobe of skin (sac) under its bill increases in size at the start of the breeding season. The male has an energetic courtship display where he raises and fans his tail over the back, inflates the lobe on the throat, splashes water with vigorous kicks of his feet and throws his head back while uttering a loud whistle.

This display lasts for long periods at a time, both night and day. One clutch of two to three or as many as ten eggs is laid each year. They are excellent divers, and search underwater for most of their food.

They feed on aquatic insects, crustaceans, snails, shellfish, fish, frogs and ducklings. On occasion some seeds of aquatic plants are also eaten.