The tiny male Mistletoe Bird has a distinct high pitched call and scarlet breast plumage similar in colour to the mistletoe flower. Seen here feasting on mistletoe fruits in June in the Northern Flinders Ranges, he will then excrete the sticky seeds onto branches of nearby native plants, enabling the semi parasitic mistletoe to germinate and embed into the branches of host plants.
Male Australian Lesser Wanderer (Danaus petilia) butterfly at Italawi Gorge seen feeding on Ptilotus flowers.
The edible Salty Ice Plant, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, has distinct glistening glands seen here on the banks of a flooded creek bed near Marree.
Heliotropium curassavicum, Salt Heliotrope, is native to the Americas and growing prolifically along the damp banks of Copley Retention Dam in the Northern Flinders Ranges.
Mistletoe is a stem parasite seen throughout the Flinders Ranges. The sticky seeds are deposited on branches by the Mistletoe Bird and other small birds, where they germinate and attach to the sap wood of the host plant, in this case Acacia Victoriae.
Acacia victoriae is prolific in the Flinders Ranges, seeding profusely following summer. The seeds can be ground into an edible flour.
The distinctive shape of a Black Kite with forked tail, circling over Copley Retention Dam.
