"The regent honeyeater used to flock in its thousands from Queensland to South Australia, but now there are only around 300 birds left in the wild," Mr Griffin said. "We're releasing conservation-bred birds to boost numbers in the wild as part of a national effort to save this critically endangered species.
AUSTRALIA'S BIRDS are among the most intelligent and beautiful in the world. In fact, scientists understand that modern songbirds evolved in East Gondwana (now Australia) millions of years ago, eventually spreading across the world. What makes them unique, scientists believe, is Australia's harsh, unforgiving climate.
Invasive birds
Introduced birds considered pests include the common myna, the common starling, the spotted dove and rock pigeon (common pigeon). Initially introduced to control locust plagues, the Indian myna breeds prolifically in urban environments in the eastern states.
Among the endemic animal species - species that can only be found in Australia - are the monotremes, which are mammals that lay eggs! The platypus and two species of echidna are the world's only egg-laying mammals, so called monotremes.
Silver-headed antechinus
This small-shrew like marsupial is considered one of the rarest mammals in Australia. In fact, until 2013 we had no idea they even existed. They favour high altitude open-forest habitats in central Queensland.
Overview: Perhaps the world's rarest bird, only one Stresemann's Bristlefront is known to survive in the wild. Unfortunately, this bird is confined to one of the most fragmented and degraded – and vulnerable – forests in the Americas.
The cassowary is a large, flightless bird most closely related to the emu. Although the emu is taller, the cassowary is the heaviest bird in Australia and the second heaviest in the world after its cousin, the ostrich.
Although fossils of birds are rare, the ancestor of all songbirds is thought to have originated in Australia, at a time when the Australian landmass was separated from all other land by a vast ocean in all directions.
Here is a sentence that is at once absurd and unsurprising: in 1932, Australia declared war on emus. It sounds like a joke, but the Great Emu War of Western Australia was real. Soldiers with machine guns were deployed to fight off the flightless birds.
There are three species of raven in Australia, and three crows. Ravens are generally bigger than crows, but other differences - e.g. range, calls - are more reliable for identifying which species is which.
Weebills are the smallest birds in Australia, and as the name suggests, they also have very small beaks. They are mostly light brown with darker brown wing tips and pale or yellowish underparts. Weebills live in woodland habitats and feed on small insects.
Also known as the Parakeet, the Budgerigar is one of the most common household birds in Australia. Budgies are the perfect pet bird for children or someone who has never owned a pet bird before.
Penguin. No list of flightless birds would be complete without the penguin. All 18 species of penguin are unable to fly, and are in fact better built for swimming and diving, which they spend the majority of their time doing.
The rarest animal in the world is the vaquita (Phocoena sinus). It is a kind of critically endangered porpoise that only lives in the furthest north-western corner of the Gulf of California in Mexico. There are only 18 left in the world.
The quokka, a small marsupial native to Australia, is one such example of a species vulnerable to extinction in the country's harsh surroundings. Known as the “happiest animal in the world” due to its cute and friendly appearance, these creatures are now only found in a few isolated forests and small islands.
Australia's most famous native animals are by far its marsupials. Koalas, kangaroos, and wombats are some of the nation's most globally recognised and loved animals.
dingo, (Canis lupus dingo, Canis dingo), also called warrigal, member of the family Canidae native to Australia. Most authorities regard dingoes as a subspecies of the wolf (Canis lupus dingo); however, some authorities consider dingoes to be their own species (C. dingo).
The dingo (Canis lupus dingo) was thought to have first come to Australia around 4000 years ago from Asia. Domestic dogs arrived with European settlers in 1788. Hybridisation of these two sub-species has led to a smaller proportion of pure dingoes in Australia.
There are no wild monkeys in Australia. The separation and extreme distancing of the Australia continent predated the evolution of monkeys. As such, many species indigenous to Australia are unique to that continent while many other species found throughout the world are not present at all.