Native biodiversity

The eastern spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris) is a small honeyeater that feeds on nectar as well as the occasional insect.

The spinebill is an important pollinator of plants, including the rare Grevillea caleyi growing in the endangered Duffy's Forest.

Eastern spinebills, like many birds in Greater Sydney, are affected by habitat loss and displacement by more aggressive honeyeaters like the noisy miner.

You can help small birds by:

• creating habitat in your backyard for small honeyeaters
• keeping your cats inside
• learning more about attracting birds to your garden.

The threatened freckled duck (Stictonetta naevosa) mostly inhabits ephemeral wetlands in southern Australia.

Freckled ducks breed in swamps and lagoons, then disperse to other areas such as coastal freshwater lagoons during drought, like the Pitt Town Freshwater Lagoon in Pitt Town Nature Reserve in north-western Sydney.

The freckled duck feeds on algae, seeds, aquatic grasses and sedges, and small invertebrates.

In the Sydney area, you’ll also find the freckled duck in coastal floodplain wetlands and coastal swamp forests.

The threatened gang-gang cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum) is slate grey in colour. The male has a red head and crest.

In Greater Sydney, gang-gang cockatoos are mostly found in the Blue Mountains, where they feed on nuts and seeds. They also feed in lowland forests like the shale sandstone transition forest on the Cumberland Plain. Gang-gangs breed in the endangered Blue Mountains basalt forest and Sydney dry hinterland forests.

Up until recently, gang-gangs lived in the critically endangered blue gum high forest in the Hornsby–Ku-ring-gai area, where they were listed as an endangered population. This was thought to be the last remaining breeding population in the metropolitan area.

Gang-gangs, like all parrots, breed in tree hollows.

You can help by reporting any sightings.

The glossy black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) is a small cockatoo that is brown–black in colour. Males have prominent dark red tail feathers while females have tail feathers which are yellow to orange–red.

The glossy black-cockatoo inhabits open forest and woodland with hollow-bearing trees where they feed almost exclusively on sheoak seeds (Casuarinas and Allocasuarinas). These trees occur in coastal and Western Sydney dry rainforests, blue gum high and shale/sandstone transition forests, and dry eucalypt forests in Pittwater.

How you can help glossy black-cockatoos:

• plant their feed trees
• protect old trees with hollows
• report glossy black-cockatoo sightings.

Little lorikeets (Glossopsitta pusilla) are small, nomadic bright green parrots. They feed mostly on the nectar and pollen of eucalypts in dry sclerophyll forests and parklands. Isolated paddock trees are also important habitat for these birds.

In Greater Sydney, they feed on the flowers of ironbark trees in the endangered Cooks River/Castlereagh ironbark forest and eucalypts in other endangered woodlands across Sydney, especially on the Cumberland Plain. Little lorikeets, like all parrots, breed in tree hollows.

How you can help the little lorikeet:

• plant nectar trees
• join a local bushcare group to restore pollinator habitat for these and other nectar-feeding birds
• report a sighting of the little lorikeet.

The little penguin (Eudyptula minor) is the world’s smallest penguin. Manly is the only mainland breeding site for little penguins in NSW and this population is listed as endangered.

Little penguins nest in burrows and feed on fish, squid, krill and small crustaceans that breed in seagrass meadows close to shore.

Their breeding sites are under threat from rising sea levels and illegal clearing of the protective vegetation around their burrows. They are also threatened by foxes, dogs and boat strikes.

How you can help if you live near the little penguin colony at Manly:

• Report fox sightings
• keep your dogs locked up
• seek council approval before removing vegetation in your backyard.

The Australian pied oystercatcher (Haematopus longirostris) is found along the coast of NSW, including endangered saltmarsh and saltwater wetlands. Like many wading birds, the pied oystercatcher lays eggs in shallow depressions on sand.

The pied oystercatcher is part of the endangered Taren Point shorebird community. These birds are threatened by habitat loss, predation of their eggs and chicks from foxes, dogs and gulls, and from being crushed by people and cars on beaches. Because of these many threats they have to be actively managed throughout their breeding season.

How you can help the pied oystercatcher:

• volunteer with the NSW Wader Study Group Shorebird Monitoring Program
• keep your dogs and cars off beaches
• report fox sightings
• volunteer with bush regeneration groups to help regenerate endangered saltmarsh.

The powerful owl (Ninox strenua) at up to 60 centimetres in length is the largest owl in Australia. Powerful owls mostly eat tree-dwelling mammals like flying-foxes, possums and gliders.

These owls breed in trees old enough to have deep hollows, like those found in the endangered Sydney turpentine–ironbark forests in northern Sydney.

During the day they roost on branches in trees with dense canopies, often in urban bushland and parkland like Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

You can help the powerful owl by reporting a sighting.

The scarlet robin (Petroica boodang) is one of many woodland birds declining in number across greater Sydney.

Scarlet robins live in dry eucalypt forest and woodlands like the endangered Agnes Banks woodland in western Sydney. They pounce on their insect prey from low perches and forage for invertebrates on the ground.

In autumn and winter, many disperse to grassy woodlands, like the critically endangered Cumberland Plain woodland, Castlereagh scribbly gum woodland, and Cooks River/Castlereagh ironbark forest.

The robin also lives in wetlands or wet forests like the endangered Castlereagh swamp woodland.

How you can help scarlet robins and other small birds:

• create habitat for small birds in your garden
• keep your cats inside
• learn more about attracting birds to your garden.

Superb fairy wrens (Malurus cyaneus) are insectivores so they help keep our gardens free of pests.

Fairy wrens like dense, continuous vegetation to hide from predators and the more aggressive honeyeaters, like noisy miners, which have contributed to their decline by chasing them out of their territory. They are also at risk from domestic and feral cats and larger carnivorous birds who eat their eggs and chicks.

In the wild, they are found in vegetation with groundcover and low shrubs, like the blue gum high forest and sheltered forests on sandstone soils.

You can help the superb fairy wren by creating habitat for them in your garden.

learn more about attracting birds to your garden.

Superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae) are large ground-dwelling birds up to 1 metre in length including the tail. They are famous for their elaborate courtship ritual that includes mimicry.

These birds rarely fly other than using their wings to get up to branches to roost and to glide back down to the ground. Lyrebirds scratch among the leaf litter to find their food. They eat ground-dwelling insects, spiders, frogs and other small invertebrates.

Superb lyrebirds are found throughout Sydney in subtropical and warm temperate rainforests, including endangered littoral rainforests in Royal National Park. They also occur in wet sclerophyll forests along the coast and in the Blue Mountains.

How you can help lyrebirds and other native animals:

• slow down on roads at dawn and dusk, especially around bushland
• report fox sightings.

The broad-headed snake (Hoplocephalus bungaroides) is a small, nocturnal venomous snake about 60 centimetres long. It lives in a variety of sandstone habitats in the Sydney Basin, including exposed sunny ridgetops in the endangered Sydney hinterland dry sclerophyll forest.

This endangered snake feeds mostly on geckos and lizards, and breeds in tree hollows and rock crevices. Illegal collection and habitat loss, mainly the removal of bushrock for use in landscaping, are the main reasons for their decline in number.

How you can help the broad-headed snake:

• report a sighting of the broad-headed snake
• watch a video about the effects of bushrock removal on this snake.

The nocturnal Cumberland Plain land snail (Meridolum corneovirens) is similar in size and shape to the introduced garden snail but only eats fungi. It lives in moist leaf litter and under logs during the day and will burrow into the ground in drier conditions.

This threatened snail is only found in the critically endangered Cumberland Plain woodland and other vegetation types on the Cumberland Plain.

If you have these threatened forests on your property, you can enhance the snail’s habitat by removing the introduced African olive that smothers the forest floor with leaves and inhibits the growth of fungi.

Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) were once common throughout Sydney but are now restricted to pockets of grassy woodlands in western Sydney, especially Wianamatta Regional Park and Camden in the south-west of Sydney. These pockets of parkland support many threatened vegetation types, including alluvial woodland, Cumberland Plain woodland shale/gravel transition forest and Cooks River/Castlereagh ironbark forest.

Eastern greys will sometimes come into gardens during drought in search of food and water. Find out more about kangaroos and wallabies.

The nocturnal eastern pygmy-possum (Cercartetus nanus) is a mouse-sized marsupial that eats nectar, pollen, and insects. They are important pollinators of heathland plants, like banksias found in the endangered eastern suburbs banksia scrub.

Pygmy-possums live inland and along the coast in open woodland and forests. They nest in tree hollows, discarded bird nests, and sometimes small burrows in the ground.

If you live next to or close to bushland, ways you can help the eastern pygmy-possum include:

• plant nectar-rich shrubs and trees
• protect hollow-bearing trees
• keep your cats inside.

The threatened giant burrowing frog (Heleioporus australiacus) is a plump frog with muscular front legs that are well suited to digging.

The giant burrowing frog spends most of its time under leaf litter or soil in open forests, woodlands and heath associated with sandy soils.

They emerge in the breeding season to find a suitable waterbody for females to lay their eggs. The males dig burrows in sandy creek beds and call to attract females during and after rain.

This frog is slow growing and lives for up to 10 years, possibly longer.

The giant dragonfly (Petalura gigantea) is one of the world’s largest dragonflies.

In Sydney, the giant dragonfly lives in permanent bogs and swamps like the Blue Mountains swamps. This includes valley swamps that form in depressions in sandstone ridges, and hanging swamps, which form by seeping groundwater. It also lives in coastal heath swamps around Sydney.

Adult giant dragonflies feed on flying insects. They emerge in late October and live for one summer after living as larvae for up to 10 years underground in the peat.

The Blue Mountains swamps are also home to the endangered Blue Mountains water skink, and many endangered plants including the dwarf mountain pine and Fletcher’s drumsticks.

The endangered green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) is a large, plump frog that varies in colour from dull olive green to bright green and gold.

Green and golden bell frogs eat insects and other frogs and usually breed in summer in unshaded freshwater wetlands. They can also breed in small backyard ponds. Like all frogs, they are vulnerable to the chytrid fungus.

How you can help Sydney's frogs:

• install a garden pond
• keep your cats inside at night
• report fox sightings
• help protect and restore their habitat
• report green and golden bell frog sightings.

The threatened grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a social bat that roosts in large camps, sometimes with other flying-fox species.

Flying-foxes mostly feed on pollen and nectar. They also eat fruit from native trees, and occasionally from commercial orchards when other food is scarce.

Loss of their natural habitat means they sometimes set up camp in towns and cities. Urban areas are important habitat for the flying-foxes, but they can also cause conflict with their human neighbours.

How you can help the grey-headed flying-fox:

• join a local bushcare group to restore pollinator habitat for these and other nectar-feeding animals
• plant nectar and fruit trees for these animals.

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is perhaps Australia’s most loved marsupial.

They are mostly active at night and live in grassy woodlands and other vegetation types that contains their preferred food trees, like the gums growing in shale sandstone transition forest in the Campbelltown and Wollondilly local government areas. These areas support Sydney’s largest, and only chlamydia-free, koala population.

The NSW Government has developed the NSW Koala Strategy to protect the koala and its habitat. How you can help koalas:

• slow down on our roads, especially at dawn and dusk
• keep your dogs secure in your backyard and on a leash when walking around bushland
• report all koala sightings.

The threatened large bent-winged bat (Miniopterus orianae oceanensis) is one of Sydney's 19 microbats. These nocturnal animals use echolocation to hunt for moths and other flying insects high above the trees in dry sclerophyll forests and wetlands. Females can travel up to 300 kilometres from their roosts and return to the same roost to breed each year.

The bats roost in caves, disused mines and abandoned buildings found in mining ghost towns.

How you can help bats:

• install nest boxes
• grow more native trees in your garden
• don't use poisons in your garden that kill their insect food.

Rosenberg's goanna (Varanus rosenbergi) is distinguished from the more common lace monitor by distinct white markings on its tail. These large lizards (up to 1.5 metres long) live in montane heath, open forest and woodland on Sydney sandstone.

They feed on carrion, eggs, other reptiles, birds and small mammals.

Rosenberg’s goannas shelter in crevices in rock outcrops, hollow logs and burrows, and lay eggs in termite mounds.

How you can help goannas:

• keep your cats inside
• keep your dogs locked securely in your backyard and on a leash when walking around bushland.

The Southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) is a nocturnal marsupial about the size of a cat, and is one of 3 bandicoots found in New South Wales.

In Sydney, southern brown bandicoots live in a variety of habitat types with a thick understorey. They sometimes come into properties on the edge of bushland and dig small, conical holes in search of invertebrates.

In north Sydney, an endangered population of long-nosed bandicoots lives in heathland. The main threats to bandicoots are habitat fragmentation, dogs, foxes, and cars.

How you can help bandicoots and other wildlife:

• slow down on the road, especially at dawn and dusk
• report fox sightings
• keep your cats inside and dogs locked securely in your backyard and on a leash when walking around bushland
• report bandicoot sightings.

The spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), also known as the tiger quoll, is a cat-sized carnivorous marsupial that was once common throughout Greater Sydney. It is rare today, but still exists in rainforests, forests, open woodland, heath, and coastal areas.

Spotted-tailed quolls make their dens in caves, tree hollows and rocky outcrops. They eat a varied diet including birds, gliders, possums, bandicoots and reptiles, and also scavenge on carrion.

You can help by reporting a sighting of the spotted-tailed quoll.

Squirrel gliders (Petaurus norfolcensis) are nocturnal gliding possums about 50 centimetres in length, including the tail. They can glide up to 50 metres between trees in search of nectar, pollen, insects, and gum produced by acacias.

The squirrel glider nests in hollows in old trees in dry sclerophyll forests. They also live in woodlands and forests in the Burragorang and Wollondilly areas, like the river-flat eucalypt forest, one of many endangered ecological communities found throughout the Cumberland Plain. They are also found in the endangered Pittwater spotted gum forest on the Barrenjoey Peninsula but are now very rare.

Squirrel gliders are also food for the threatened powerful owl.

How you can help if you live next to or close to bushland with squirrel gliders:

• plant food trees
• protect hollow-bearing trees.

Swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor) were once common throughout Sydney but are now restricted to pockets of sandstone heath, sedgeland and forest with dense undergrowth.

They live in wilderness areas around Lake Burragorang and the Blue Mountains. They can also still be seen in remnant moist heath in north Sydney, and coastal freshwater wetlands.

During drought, swamp wallabies sometimes come into gardens in search of food and water.

How you can help swamp wallabies and other native wildlife:

• slow down on our roads, especially at dawn and dusk
• report fox sightings
• keep your dogs secure in your backyard and on a leash when walking around bushland
• find out more about living with kangaroos and wallabies.

The biggest threat to our region's biodiversity is habitat loss. Accommodating Sydney's growing population has adversely affected native plants and animals, but recent changes to environmental legislation aim to balance land management and nature conservation.

Fragmentation puts remnant bushland at greater risk of threats such as weed and pest invasions.

Weeds are invasive plants that compete with native plants for light, space and water. They are usually introduced species and can harm native plants and animals, natural landscapes, water catchments and agriculture. Weeds also have economic impacts due to high management costs.

In Sydney over 200 plant species have been identified as high priority weeds. Weeds threaten our biodiversity when introduced plants escape from gardens and choke our waterways and bushland.

Pesticide, fungicide and herbicide application can kill bacteria and fungi, and beneficial insects and other invertebrates that live in our gardens. These poisons can make their way into our waterways, killing aquatic animals and plants.

Cats, foxes and wild dogs kill our native animals.

Cats kill more than 1 million native birds in Australia every day. Foxes are a big threat to native animals in Sydney. In 2016, one fox killed one-fifth of Manly's endangered little penguins.

Domestic dogs chase birds, kill lizards like blue tongues, and attack and kill mammals like koalas.

Wild rabbits and feral goats outcompete native animals for food.

Rubbish, including tiny plastic particles that form when plastic breaks down in the environment, hurts our wildlife on the land and in the water.

CSIRO has identified plastics and marine debris as major environmental concerns, with balloons, plastic bags and bottles among the top 3 most harmful pollutants to marine life.

Cars and other vehicles kill hundreds of thousands of native animals every year.

This includes larger animals like kangaroos and wombats as well as native frogs, reptiles and smaller birds. These animals try to find food and shelter in fragmented habitats so go to the edge of roads to feed or cross, often at sunset. It’s then that they’re particularly vulnerable to being injured or killed.

Climate changes, like increasing temperatures, shifts in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels and more intense extreme events such as heat waves or storms, threaten all aspects of our biodiversity.

Visit our webpage on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity for more information.

You can help by:

• stopping your cat from catching wildlife – put a bell round its neck and keep it inside, especially at night
• stopping your dog from chasing and catching wildlife by keeping it on a lead and preventing it from entering bush
• reporting fox sightings.

You can also support organisations that rescue and nurse injured and orphaned wildlife back to health, such as Sydney Wildlife and WIRES. Download the International Fund for Animal Welfare app to find your nearest rescue organisation.

Help reduce threats to wildlife by:

• driving slowly around bushland, particularly around dawn and dusk
• don't throw litter/food out of your car as this can attract wildlife to the road
• turn your headlights on at dusk and consider putting your lights on high beam if safe to do so.

Combat our rising city temperatures

Use green cover to help keep your local area cooler and enjoy the many benefits.

Find out more about climate change and what we are doing to understand how our species, ecosystems and landscapes can adapt.

Become a weed warrior

Don’t plant introduced plants that may become weeds. Find out what weeds are impacting your local area and remove them.

Species most likely to become weeds include hardy plants with fruits that can be dispersed by birds (e.g. privets, blackberries) or seeds dispersed by the wind (e.g. dandelions). By replacing weeds with native plants, you remove threats to biodiversity and create habitat and food for native animals.

For more information about native plants local to your area, go to your local nursery:

• Hawkesbury Community Nursery
• Hills Shire Council
• Hornsby Community Nursery
• Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Nursery
• Lane Cove Community Nursery
• Marrickville Community Nursery
• North Sydney Council
• Randwick Community Nursery
• Rozelle Bay Community Native Nursery
• Sutherland Shire Plants and Bushland Plants Nursery.

Don't dump your garden clippings in parks, waterways or over the back fence as this can also spread weeds. Dispose of them in council green bins or let them rot in water for 6 weeks and put them in your own compost bin. You can use the diluted ‘tea’ (1 part tea to 9 parts water) as a fertiliser on your garden. For more information about composting in your area contact your local council.

Are you experiencing problems with weeds? Find out about Greater Sydney Local Land Services strategic weed management plan and how to report and manage priority weeds for Greater Sydney.

Volunteer with bushcare groups working in our national parks, your local council, or community groups to work together removing weeds and restoring native habitat.

Look out for pest animals

Have you seen a pest animal in your local area? Use Feral Scan to record sightings of feral animals in your local area such as wild dogs, deer, foxes, and other pests and help protect farms, biodiversity and communities.

Report any sightings of unusual non-native animals.