– 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!
Birds | Mammals | Reptiles | Frogs | Key | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Australian Shelduck | Platypus | Tree 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? |
|
4 | Grey Teal | Dusky Antechinus | McCoy's Skink | Lymnodynastes peronii | ||
5 | Chestnut Teal | Swamp Antechinus | Delicate Skink | Lymnodynastes tasmaniensis | Single record only |
|
6 | Pink-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 | ||
8 | Brown Quail | Koala | Coventry's Skink | Litoria ewingii | ||
9 | Stubble Quail | Common Wombat | Spencer's Skink | Litoria verreauxii | ||
10 | Australasian Grebe | Eastern Pygmy-possum | Blotched Blue-tongued Lizard | |||
11 | Hoary-headed Grebe | Leadbeater's Possum | Eastern Small-eyed Snake | |||
12 | Little Pied Cormorant | Yellow-bellied Glider | White-lipped Snake | |||
13 | Great 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 | |||
18 | Great Egret | Common Brush-tailed Possum | Black Rock Skink | |||
19 | White-faced Heron | Eastern Grey Kangaroo | Southern Water Skink | |||
20 | Nankeen 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 | ||||
26 | Swamp Harrier | Water Rat | ||||
27 | Brown Goshawk | House mouse | ||||
28 | Collared Sparrowhawk | European Rabbit | ||||
29 | Black Kite | Grey-headed Flying-fox | ||||
30 | Whistling Kite | White-striped Free-tailed Bat | ||||
31 | Buff-banded Rail | Gould'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 | ||||
38 | Latham's Snipe | Southern Forest Bat | ||||
39 | Little Buttonquail | Large-footed Myotis | ||||
40 | Painted Buttonquail | Domestic Dog and Dingo | ||||
41 | Rock Dove | Red Fox | ||||
42 | Peaceful Dove | Domestic Cat | ||||
43 | Spotted Dove | Sambar Deer | ||||
44 | Common Bronzewing | Fallow Deer | ||||
45 | Brush Bronzewing | |||||
46 | Crested 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 | |||||
66 | Nankeen Kestrel | |||||
67 | Australian Hobby | |||||
68 | Peregrine Falcon | |||||
69 | Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo | |||||
70 | Gang-gang Cockatoo | |||||
71 | Galah | |||||
72 | Long-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 | |||||
82 | Little 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 | |||||
93 | Yellow-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 | |||||
105 | Noisy 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 | |||||
116 | Yellow Thornbill | |||||
117 | Striated Thornbill | |||||
118 | Weebill | |||||
119 | Brown Gerygone | |||||
120 | Eastern Whipbird | |||||
121 | Spotted 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 | |||||
155 | Eurasian 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 | |||||
164 | Song Thrush | |||||
165 | Common Starling | |||||
166 | Common Myna | |||||
167 | Mistletoebird | |||||
168 | Australasian 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