Alice Springs Desert Park
ASDP BirdsAustralian Boobook Owl Australian Bustard Australian Hobby Banded Lapwing Barn Owl Black Kite Black-breasted Buzzard Black-faced Woodswallow Black-fronted Dotterel Bourke’s Parrot Brown Falcon Emu Inland Dotterel Orange Chat Pied Honeyeater Princess Parrot Rainbow Bee-eater Red-capped Robin Spinifex Pigeon Splendid Fairy-wren Tawny Frogmouth Wedge-tailed Eagle Western Bowerbird Whistling Kite White-faced Heron White-winged Fairywren
Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House
The Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops) is a common little bird seen around inland waterholes, often all year round.
They have streaked upperparts, with strong white eyebrow, and a heavy black line through the eye. The adults have a distinctive black V shape mark on their chest. Their two-tone mottled brown feathers help them blend in with the sand and pebbles at the water’s edge. They have red eye-ring.
When incubating their eggs, and the temperature is really hot, they can be seen standing above the eggs to provide shade over the eggs.
Images © Ausemade Pty Ltd
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Charadriiformes
- Family: Charadriidae
- Genus: Elseyornis
- Species: Elseyornis melanops
ASDP BirdsAustralian Boobook Owl Australian Bustard Australian Hobby Banded Lapwing Barn Owl Black Kite Black-breasted Buzzard Black-faced Woodswallow Black-fronted Dotterel Bourke’s Parrot Brown Falcon Emu Inland Dotterel Orange Chat Pied Honeyeater Princess Parrot Rainbow Bee-eater Red-capped Robin Spinifex Pigeon Splendid Fairy-wren Tawny Frogmouth Wedge-tailed Eagle Western Bowerbird Whistling Kite White-faced Heron White-winged Fairywren
ASDP FaunaASDP Arachnida ASDP Birds ASDP Insects ASDP Reptiles Dingo Ghost Bat Greater Bilby Numbat Red Kangaroo Short-beaked Echidna Spinifex Hopping Mouse Thorny Devil Western Quoll
Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House