Malleefowl

About

The malleefowl is a stocky, chicken-sized ground bird found in the semi-arid mallee scrub of southern Australia. Uniquely among Australian birds it builds and tends a huge incubation mound of sand and leaf litter, using its bill to test and regulate the mound's temperature, then leaves the chicks to fend for themselves entirely from the moment they hatch.

How to spot it

Chicken-sized with intricately mottled grey, black, brown and white plumage that gives near-perfect camouflage in leaf litter — you're far more likely to spot the enormous nesting mound (up to several metres wide) than the shy, solitary bird itself. It rarely flies, instead walking quietly away or freezing when disturbed; best chance of a sighting is at dawn or dusk near an active mound in mallee scrub.

Found in

• Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park