Bunyip State Park Vertebrate List

– NOTE – Bunyip State Park obviously suffered severe damage from Bushfire early in 2019 – it will be interesting to follow its recovery over the coming years.

Bunyip State Park has long been my favourite wildlife destination close to Melbourne. It is on the right side of town for me, has great habitat diversity and an excellent range of wildlife ranging from heathland specials like Southern Emu-wren and Beautiful Firetail to tall wet forest species like Greater and Yellow-bellied Glider and of course an very good population of Sooty Owl. There is an excellent reasonably maintained set of forest roads and a large network of walking tracks. Nearly half the park was heavily burnt in the Black Saturday fires but even the regrowth is well worth a look with species like Pilotbird, Long-nosed Bandicoot and Dusky Antechinus moving back in.

As the place if of such interest to me I decided to compile a list of vertebrate species recorded in the park. As well as personal observations I used sources including Atlas of Living Australia, Ebird, Birdata, Victorian Biodiversity Atlas and internet research. In addition I advertised on a number of social media platforms asking for sightings and received a number of responses. The intention is that the below table is a working document that can be added to overtime. There are a number of single records that are possibly mis-identifications of other more common species but have been included for completeness – a good example of this is Geocrinia laevis which is almost certainly a mis-identification of the ubiquitous Geocrinia victoriana. Sightings from some sources such as Ebird may include species seen outside the park boundaries. Initial work indicates around 245 species recorded in the park made of of 172 birds, 44 mammals, 20 reptiles and 9 frogs. There are a number of interesting species that have not been recorded since the 80’s – they may well be gone but I live in hope. If you think you have an addition to the list please contact me!

For the record in the State Park I have recorded 139/172 bird species, 36/44 mammal species, 10/20 reptile species and 8/8 frog species – I really need to work on my reptiles!

BirdsMammalsReptilesFrogsKey
1
Australian Shelduck
PlatypusTree Dragon
Geocrinia laevis
2
Australian Wood Duck
Short-beaked Echidna
Lace Monitor
Geocrinia victoriana
Personal Observation - TB
3
Pacific Black Duck
Agile Antechinus
Swamp Skink
Lymnodynastes dumerilii
Not recorded since 1980's - still extant?
4Grey Teal
Dusky Antechinus
McCoy's Skink
Lymnodynastes peronii
5
Chestnut Teal
Swamp Antechinus
Delicate Skink
Lymnodynastes tasmaniensis
Single record only
6Pink-eared Duck
Southern Brown Bandicoot
Garden Skink
Pseudophryne semimarmorata
* = feather-tail glider not recorded to species level (current taxonomy)
7
Hardhead
Southern Long-nosed Bandicoot
Weasel Skink
Crinia signifera
8Brown Quail
Koala
Coventry's Skink
Litoria ewingii
9Stubble Quail
Common Wombat
Spencer's Skink
Litoria verreauxii
10Australasian Grebe
Eastern Pygmy-possum
Blotched Blue-tongued Lizard
11Hoary-headed Grebe
Leadbeater's Possum
Eastern Small-eyed Snake
12
Little Pied Cormorant
Yellow-bellied Glider
White-lipped Snake
13Great Cormorant
Inland Sugar Glider
Tiger Snake
14
Little Black Cormorant
Southern Greater Glider
Glossy Grass Skink
15
Australasian Darter
Eastern Ring-tailed Possum
Red-bellied Black Snake
16
Australian Pelican
Feather-tail Glider (sp) *
Lowland Copperhead
17
White-necked Heron
Mountain Brush-tailed Possum
Highland Copperhead
18Great Egret
Common Brush-tailed Possum
Black Rock Skink
19
White-faced Heron
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Southern Water Skink
20Nankeen Night-Heron
Swamp Wallaby
Cunningham's Skink
21
Australian White Ibis
Swamp Rat
22
Straw-necked Ibis
Bush Rat
23
Black-shouldered Kite (Australian)
Black Rat
24
Little Eagle
Brown Rat
25
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Broad-toothed Rat
26Swamp HarrierWater Rat
27
Brown Goshawk
House mouse
28
Collared Sparrowhawk
European Rabbit
29Black Kite
Grey-headed Flying-fox
30Whistling Kite
White-striped Free-tailed Bat
31Buff-banded RailGould's Long-eared Bat
32
Lewin's Rail
Lesser Long-eared Bat
33
Spotless Crake
Gould's Wattled Bat
34
Australasian Swamphen
Chocolate Wattled Bat
35
Dusky Moorhen
Eastern Falsistrelle
36
Eurasian Coot
Large Forest Bat
37
Masked Lapwing
Small Forest Bat
38Latham's Snipe
Southern Forest Bat
39Little Buttonquail
Large-footed Myotis
40Painted Buttonquail
Domestic Dog and Dingo
41Rock Dove
Red Fox
42
Peaceful Dove
Domestic Cat
43
Spotted Dove
Sambar Deer
44
Common Bronzewing
Fallow Deer
45
Brush Bronzewing
46Crested Pigeon
47
Wonga Pigeon
48
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo
49
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
50
Pallid Cuckoo
51
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
52
Brush Cuckoo
53
Sooty Owl
54
Australian Masked-Owl
55
Powerful Owl
56
Barking Owl
57
Southern Boobook
58
Tawny Frogmouth
59
White-throated Nightjar
60
Australian Owlet-nightjar
61
White-throated Needletail
62
Pacific Swift
63
Azure Kingfisher
64
Laughing Kookaburra
65
Sacred Kingfisher
66Nankeen Kestrel
67
Australian Hobby
68
Peregrine Falcon
69
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
70
Gang-gang Cockatoo
71
Galah
72Long-billed Corella
73
Little Corella
74
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
75
Australian King-Parrot
76
Blue-winged Parrot
77
Turquoise Parrot
78
Swift Parrot
79
Crimson Rosella
80
Eastern Rosella
81
Musk Lorikeet
82Little Lorikeet
83
Rainbow Lorikeet
84
Superb Lyrebird
85
Satin Bowerbird
86
White-throated Treecreeper
87
Red-browed Treecreeper
88
Southern Emuwren
89
Superb Fairywren
90
Eastern Spinebill
91
Lewin's Honeyeater
92
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
93Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
94
Bell Miner
95
Noisy Miner
96
Little Wattlebird
97
Red Wattlebird
98
White-plumed Honeyeater
99
Scarlet Honeyeater
100
Crescent Honeyeater
101
New Holland Honeyeater
102
White-eared Honeyeater
103
White-naped Honeyeater
104
Brown-headed Honeyeater
105Noisy Friarbird
106
Spotted Pardalote
107
Striated Pardalote
108
Pilotbird
109
White-browed Scrubwren
110
Large-billed Scrubwren
111
Striated Fieldwren
112
Chestnut-rumped Heathwren
113
Buff-rumped Thornbill
114
Brown Thornbill
115
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
116Yellow Thornbill
117
Striated Thornbill
118Weebill
119
Brown Gerygone
120
Eastern Whipbird
121Spotted Quail-thrush
122
Masked Woodswallow
123
White-browed Woodswallow
124
Dusky Woodswallow
125
Grey Butcherbird
126
Australian Magpie
127
Pied Currawong
128
Grey Currawong
129
Black-faced Cuckooshrike
130
White-winged Triller
131
Common Cicadabird
132
Varied Sittella
133
Crested Shrike-tit
134
Grey Shrikethrush
135
Olive Whistler
136
Golden Whistler
137
Rufous Whistler
138
Olive-backed Oriole
139
Willie Wagtail
140
Rufous Fantail
141
Grey Fantail
142
Black-faced Monarch
143
Magpie-lark
144
Leaden Flycatcher
145
Satin Flycatcher
146
Australian Raven
147
Little Raven
148
White-winged Chough
149
Jacky Winter
150
Scarlet Robin
151
Flame Robin
152
Rose Robin
153
Pink Robin
154
Eastern Yellow Robin
155Eurasian Skylark
156
Welcome Swallow
157
Fairy Martin
158
Tree Martin
159
Australian Reed Warbler
160
Rufous Songlark
161
Silvereye
162
Bassian Thrush
163
Common Blackbird
164Song Thrush
165
Common Starling
166
Common Myna
167
Mistletoebird
168Australasian Pipit
169
European Goldfinch
170
House Sparrow
171
Beautiful Firetail
172
Red-browed Finch

Sources:
Atlas of Living Australia
Victorian Biodiversity Atlas
Ebird
Birdata
VNPA camera trap project
Personal Comment: Tim Bawden, Arthur Carew, Steve Davidson, Dave Newman, Steven Kuiter, Richard Loyn