Wild Sydney: Flying-Foxes, Penguins, Kookaburras and Whales

Sydney’s national parks reach into the city, and its wildlife comes with them. Grey-headed flying-foxes roost by the thousand in Centennial Parklands, little penguins breed in North Harbour at Manly, and the bush of the harbour headlands, Royal National Park and the Blue Mountains is never far away.

Few great cities have so much bush inside them. Sydney Harbour National Park protects the headlands and islands of the harbour; Royal National Park, established in 1879, lies on the southern edge of the city, and Ku-ring-gai Chase on its northern edge (NPWS).

This is the wild side of Sydney: the bats of the eastern parks, the penguins of Manly, the birds of the gardens and the whales off the heads, and how to see them without disturbing them.

Flying-foxes at dusk

Centennial Parklands manages a nationally important camp of grey-headed flying-foxes at Lachlan Swamp; the species is listed as vulnerable under Commonwealth and New South Wales law, and the camp is a maternity roost (Centennial Parklands). At dusk the bats leave to feed across the city, a great dark stream against the sky.

Watch from the paths, and never touch a bat: leave injured animals to trained rescuers.

The penguins of Manly

A colony of little penguins lives in a hidden cove in North Harbour at Manly, the only breeding colony on the New South Wales mainland; it is protected as an endangered population, with its surrounding habitat declared critical habitat (NSW Environment and Heritage).

Boats slow down in North Harbour for the penguins, and dogs are kept away from the foreshore.

A colony of little penguins a ferry ride from the Opera House.

Birds of the parks

Laughing kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets and Australian white ibis are the birds every visitor notices, in the Royal Botanic Garden, Hyde Park and the harbour parks; eastern water dragons bask on the rocks by the ponds.

Whales off the heads

Humpback whales pass the Sydney coast on their annual migration; the South Head Heritage trail at Watsons Bay is, in NPWS’s words, an excellent place for whale watching in season, and North Head looks out over the same water.

The mountains beyond

West of the city, the Greater Blue Mountains Area holds ninety-one eucalypt taxa and relict species such as the Wollemi pine, UNESCO notes: a living record of how the eucalypts evolved.

Feature: a mainland penguin colony

Manly’s little penguins are the only colony breeding on the New South Wales mainland; their nests are in the gardens, rocks and bush along a stretch of North Harbour foreshore, which is why the state protects the habitat as well as the birds.

Did you know? Did you know? Manly’s little penguin colony is protected as an endangered population under the state’s Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (NSW Environment and Heritage).

Our advice

Our advice: come to Centennial Park at dusk for the flying-foxes, take the ferry to Manly and walk the foreshore quietly, and stand at South Head in the cooler months for a chance of whales; never feed wildlife, and keep dogs on leads in the parks.