Gouldian Finches are spectacular – their multi-coloured feathers are the colour of gemstones! These small birds have a bright green back, sunshine yellow belly and a royal purple chest. Each bird can have one of three different face colours – black, red or yellow.
Did you know? Gouldian Finches eat grass seeds and prefer to flock together – sometimes in groups of as many as 1,000 members.
Fun activities: Download our Gouldian Finch Colour-The-Numbers Activity and our Gouldian Finch Mask Kit
Bees are an amazing group of insects that come in many sizes, colours and patterns—from black with blue polka dots to yellow, red, shiny green or black with rainbow stripes! All bees have antennae, 6 legs, 3 body segments and wings. They can be all different sizes; in Australia we have the smallest bee in the world which is smaller than a grain of rice, and our largest bee—the Great Carpenter Bee—is about the size of a raspberry.
Did you know? The hairs on their bodies make it easier to collect pollen which is why most bees have hairy bodies.
Affinity Education Group x Australian Wildlife Conservancy Family Fun Pack: Download the Native Bee Pack
There are two species of Australian crocodiles, the saltwater and the freshwater. The saltwater crocodile is the biggest reptile in the world and can grow as long as 7 metres. The freshwater crocodile is much smaller growing up to 3 metres long (which is still almost as tall as two adult female people). Crocodiles are green and brown with long noses and a big mouth that bites ten times harder than a shark!
Did you know? Crocodiles, snakes, lizards, and turtles are all reptiles. Reptiles have lived in Australia for millions of years, even when the dinosaurs existed. Australia has more than 1,000 different species of reptiles.
Affinity Education Group x Australian Wildlife Conservancy Family Fun Pack: Download the Crocodile Pack
The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat is the largest burrowing marsupial in the world. It is also one of Australia’s rarest animals. They spend most of their time underground in vast burrows but come out at night to feed on grasses.
Did you know? There are only 315 Northern Hairy nosed Wombats left and they can live to be 24 years old.
Affinity Education Group x Australian Wildlife Conservancy Family Fun Pack: Download the Wombat Pack
Other fun activities: Download our Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat Mask Kit and our Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat Maze Activity
The Greater Bilby is an iconic Australian marsupial, with a pointed snout, long ears, soft grey fur and striking black and white tail. Bilbies dig burrows up to 3 metres deep to live in, and they love to eat insects, seeds, bulbs, fruit and fungi.
Did you know? Greater Bilbies dig up 20 tonnes of topsoil in a year when making their homes and looking for food. Their digging moves water and nutrients into the soil helping plants to grow.
Affinity Education Group x Australian Wildlife Conservancy Family Fun Pack: Download the Bilby Pack
Other fun activities: Download our Bilby Drawing Activity
Weighing less than a golf ball, the Eastern Pygmy Possum is one of the smallest possums in the world. They are nocturnal, emerging at night to feed on nectar and pollen from flowering plants such as banksias and eucalypts, as well as some insects. It is an important pollinator, transferring pollen between flowers as it feeds.
Did you know? Eastern Pygmy Possums construct small spherical nests out of bark, often in tree hollows or beneath a loose layer of bark, where they shelter during the day. In cold conditions, they enter a state of torpor to conserve energy.
Fun activity: Download our Eastern Pygmy Possum Find-A-Word Puzzle
Great Desert Skinks are large (growing up to 44 cm!), long-lived reptiles that dig complex burrow systems up to 10 metres wide with multiple entrances. Outside of each burrow is a distinctive latrine area – a large toilet that all resident skinks use. Great Desert Skinks share their burrows with their young until they leave home to create their own burrows at 3 years old.
Did you know? In cooler months Great Desert Skinks hibernate in specially constructed chambers in their burrows.
Fun activity: Download our Great Desert Skink Maze
The Rough-scaled Python is a placid and non-venomous snake that can grow to 2 metres long!
Did you know? Rough-scaled Pythons live in remote areas and are some of the rarest snakes in Australia! They are well camouflaged and very difficult to spot, but Australian Wildlife Conservancy scientists have spotted them at our sanctuaries in the Kimberley.
Fun activity: Download our Rough-scaled Python Measuring Activity
The Black Grasswren is only found in the north-west Kimberley in Western Australia. This bird loves rocky sandstone country with big rocks and grasslands.
Did you know? Black Grasswrens live in pairs or groups of up to 8 birds. You can tell males and females apart based on their feathers! Males have a black front with rich brown-back feathers. Females have a paler red-brown front.
Fun activity: Download our Black Grasswren Colouring Activity
The Mountain-top Nursery Frog is only found in Australia. Its natural habitat is in moist tropical and subtropical high altitude forests. It is sometimes called the Mount Lewis Nursery Frog.
Did you know? Mountain-top Nursery Frogs are found only in one place in Australia – the very top of Mount Lewis in Queensland!
Fun activity: Download our Mountain-top Nursery-frog Craft Kit
Numbats have rusty-orange and grey black fur, with white bands across their backs that get bigger towards their tail. Numbats have long fluffy tails and very long sticky tongues which they use to eat their favourite food – termites.
Did you know? Like us, Numbats are active during the day. This makes it easier to find termites which Numbats dig up and then eat by flicking out their long tongues.
Fun activity: Download our Numbat Connect-The-Dots Activity
The Northern Red-faced Turtle is medium-sized, with a shell that is about 30 cm wide (the same as your school ruler) and lives in rivers, streams, and permanent water bodies across much of northern Australia.
Did you know? They are known for the stripes of red on either side of their cheeks which are either a vivid red or a paler salmon pink.
Purple-crowned Fairywrens are small birds – each one weighs less than 3 sugar cubes! They get their name from the vivid purple crown of feathers males have when trying to attract females. Both males and females have bright blue tails, black bills, and brown backs and wings.
Did you know? The Purple-crowned Fairywrens on Annie Creek and the Adcock River on Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Mornington–Marion Downs Wildlife Sanctuary have been studied since 2005. Scientists can tell the birds apart by sight by the different coloured bands that have been attached to their legs.
Fun activity: Download our Purple-crowned Fairywren Colouring Activity
The Red-tailed Phascogale is a small marsupial with an ash-grey body and distinctive reddish-brown tail that ends in a brush of long black hairs. By night they hunt prey and during the day they sleep curled up in tree hollows.
Did you know? Red-tailed Phascogales’ favourite foods are insects and spiders. They get all the water they need from their food and don’t need to drink anything!
Fun activity: Download our Red-tailed Phascogale Drawing Activity
Western Quolls are only found in Western Australia. They have brown fur with white spots on their back and sides and black brushy fur on their tail. Western Quolls hunt at night and shelter in hollow logs or burrows during the day.
Did you know? Another name for the Western Quoll is the Chuditch which is the name given to it by the Noongar Traditional Owners of south-west Western Australia.
Fun activity: Download our Western Quoll Crossword
The Goodfellow’s Tree-kangaroo is unlike other kangaroos because it spends a lot of time climbing trees. They do this by gripping the branches with their strong tails and rubbery pads on their feet. They also use their hind legs separately to create more balance – a skill that ground kangaroos haven’t mastered yet.
Did you know? Adult Goodfellow’s Tree-kangaroos can jump from an 18-metre-tall tree onto the ground unscathed!
The Short-eared Rock-wallaby is found in the northernmost parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. They are generally varying shades of grey and brown with white areas around their face and legs. The Kunwinjku people in West Arnhem Land call the Short-eared Rock-wallaby the Badbong.
Did you know? The Short-eared Rock-wallaby is a sociable species, living among the cliffs, hills, and valleys of monsoonal rainforests. Here they can find refuge from predators and forage on vegetation. The Short-eared Rock-wallaby enjoys munching on leaves and grasses in rocky hills and gorges.
Fun activity: Download our Short-eared Rock-wallaby Connect-The-Dots Activity
The male Richmond Birdwing Butterfly has brilliantly coloured wings, with green and black on the inside and blue, yellow and black on the outside. Richmond Birdwing Butterflies have evolved to only lay their eggs on one special vine called the Birdwing Butterfly Vine. However, a similar-looking poisonous weed called the Dutchman’s Pipe Vine has since been introduced in Australia, causing the butterflies to sometimes lay their eggs on this weed by mistake. The Dutchman’s Pipe leaves are poisonous to butterfly larvae, which is why it’s very important to get rid of this weed.
Did you know? The Richmond Birdwing Butterfly is one of Australia’s largest butterflies. It is called a birdwing as the species looks like a little bird because of its large wings.
Fun activity: Download our Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Mask Kit
The Red Goshawk is an incredibly powerful hawk with big claws, called talons, designed to help them quickly catch their prey. They have a huge wingspan that they use to soar through the sky and remain stealthy when sneaking up on their prey.
Did you know? The Red Goshawk mostly eats other birds, some of which can be as big as Brush Turkeys and Kookaburras!
The Blue-winged Kookaburra is a medium-sized bird that gets its name from the iconic blue feathers on its wings and tail. It has a heavier bill than its larger relative, the Laughing Kookaburra. Blue-winged Kookaburras like to build their nests inside tree hollows, where they can safely lay their eggs.
Did you know? The Blue-winged Kookaburra’s call sounds like a laugh! It uses this cackling sound to mark its territory.
The Mala is a small nocturnal marsupial with reddish-orange fur, small front arms and upturned ears, and a long strong tail. The Mala is an important ancestral figure for the Warlpiri People in Central Australia and became extinct in the wild in the early 1990s. With the help of Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s breeding program, they now live on a small predator-free island and in some fenced sanctuaries.
Did you know? The Mala lives in the sandy desert and can survive without water, instead, it gets water from the plants and grasses it eats which often need fire to grow.
Pink Cockatoos have beautiful pink feathers that cover the underside of their wings, breast and underbelly which are particularly prominent when flying. They mostly eat seeds and particularly enjoy those from Wattle and Cyprus trees. They also eat fruits, nuts, and insect larvae.
Did you know? When communicating with other cockatoos or trying to discourage predators, the Pink Cockatoo will raise its head crest to display a strikingly beautiful yellow, red, and white feather rainbow.
The Kowari is a small nocturnal predator with large upright ears, a light-grey coat and a distinctive dense black brush on the end of its tail. Kowaris grow to 34cm, but their long tails account for almost half of their total body length. The Kowari is a small but ferocious predator which hunts at night for invertebrates, small mammals, reptiles, rodents and even birds and their eggs.
Did you know? Kowaris are so well-adapted to life in the central desert that they do not need to drink, as they get moisture from their food.
The Koala is an amazing animal oddity, living on a specialist diet of eucalyptus leaves that would be poisonous to other animals. Koalas spend most of their time in trees, sleeping and digesting their food. Unless it’s very hot, Koalas don’t drink water, instead getting all they need from the leaves they eat.
Did you know? The Koala’s closest living relative is the wombat! Like wombats they have hard bottoms, which help Koalas sit comfortably wedged between tree branches.
Fun activity: Download our Koala Mask Kit
Running River Rainbowfish are small, yellow to greenish coloured fish with distinctive black zig-zag lines on their sides and reddish fins. They are a freshwater species found only in a small section of river in Queensland and eat insects, algae, and small crustaceans.
Did you know? AWC helped to save the Running River Rainbowfish from extinction when some of the fish were released at Mount Zero-Taravale Wildlife Sanctuary.
Frilled-neck Lizards prefer warmer climates and can be found across the tropical north and along the east coast of Australia. They are excellent climbers and spend most of their time in trees, where they find their favourite food – spiders, cicadas, and beetles. They rely on camouflage for their safety, so their mostly grey and brown colours match those of their surroundings.
Did you know? Frilled-neck Lizards are known for their large frill which opens when they are trying to be threatening. This, along with their bright yellow mouth, is designed to scare predators away.
The map of Australia below shows you where you might find some of our iconic wildlife! Which species live closest to you?
Wondering how you can help Aussie wildlife?
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