Image: Chris McColl. Australia's rarest bird of prey - the red goshawk - is facing extinction, with Cape York Peninsula now the only place in Queensland known to support breeding populations.
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 golden-shouldered parrot, one of Australia's most endangered bird species, faces an unusual problem.
The crested pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) is a bird found widely throughout mainland Australia except for the far northern tropical areas. Only two Australian pigeon species possess an erect crest, the crested pigeon and the spinifex pigeon.
It's scientific name is the Treron vernans, or pink-necked green-pigeon, and it lives in south-east Asia. The males of the species are more brightly-coloured than the females, as they often use their bright colours to attract a potential mate.
The pink pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri) is a species of pigeon in the family Columbidae endemic to Mauritius. The pink pigeon nearly became extinct in the 1970s and the 1990s and is still very rare. It is the only Mascarene pigeon that has not become extinct.
Purple Gallinule, which is found in the south-eastern United States, Central America, the Caribbean and much of South America, has a well-established reputation as a species frequently prone to long-distance vagrancy.
The Rainbow Lorikeet was abundant around Sydney until the late 19th century, but was rare in Sydney between then and 1950. It is now highly abundant again across Sydney.
Owls can be the hardest of birds to see. Among them, bay owls tend to be especially difficult to track down at night in their rainforest habitats.
The splendid fairywren (Malurus splendens) is a passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is also known simply as the splendid wren or more colloquially in Western Australia as the blue wren.
There are several populations of the Crimson Rosella. Red (crimson) birds occur in northern Queensland, in southern Queensland to south-eastern South Australia and on Kangaroo Island.
The rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas.
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. It is thought that they may be extinct in ten years.
History: Red-throated Lorikeets (Charmosyna amabilis) have always been considered to be rare and thinly distributed throughout their range.
Varies among species. Smaller species live 12 – 15 years in captivity and larger species live 25–35 years in captivity.
The most commonly known is the rainbow lorikeet, which also happens to be the biggest and brightest.
Copper Marans are the most common purple egg layers. Copper Marans lay some of the most stunning dark brown chocolate-y eggs, so adding a few of these ladies to your flock will really add interest to your colorful egg basket.
“A Chilean Tinamou is a chicken-like bird that lays a dark (and very shiny) purple egg. They are not actually a chicken though, but some people do keep them as part of their backyard flock. A Marans egg with the bloom still on it can appear purple as well, when wet it will look brown again, then purple when dried.”
A rare bird last spotted 140 years ago has been found in Papua New Guinea, delighting researchers. The black-naped pheasant pigeon was last documented by scientists in 1882.
The black imperial pigeon is listed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the IUCN Red List due to a sufficiently large range and lack of sufficient population decline. However, its population is thought to be declining due to habitat destruction.
Often referred to as the pink parakeet, the Bourke's parakeet, or Neopsephotus bourkii to give it its scientific name, is native to Australia. They were first discovered in New South Wales in the 1830's and can still be found across several dry and arid regions of Australia.
Seychelles Blue pigeon © Alec Taylor
Once it was shot for food, it became quite rare, but population has recovered and you can now see birds on many islands. Recently, it has spread to Cousin and Aride.