The Maroochy river evidence register

The claim. The mangrove honeyeater visits its flowers, and likely carries its pollen.

From this web's own account. It works the small flowers of the grey mangrove and the river mangrove for nectar and carries their pollen from tree to tree as it goes · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The mangroves are insect-pollinated in the main, and the bees get most of the credit. A nectar-feeding bird working the same flowers moves pollen too, further per trip than a bee does.

The claim. The mangrove honeyeater visits its flowers, and likely carries its pollen.

From this web's own account. It works the small flowers of the grey mangrove and the river mangrove for nectar and carries their pollen from tree to tree as it goes · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The book has the bees working the river mangrove's sweet-scented flowers hard. They are not the only ones at them.

The claim. The mistletoebird eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From this web's own account. The she-oak mistletoe of the floodplain depends on that service entirely, because a mistletoe seed that lands on the ground is a dead mistletoe · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. One of the tightest connections in Australian bush: a plant that cannot plant itself, and a bird shaped around planting it.

The claim. The chestnut-breasted mannikin feeds on it.

From this web's own account. small parties of chestnut-breasted mannikins work the seed heads, clinging sideways to a stem to bend it down and stripping the ripe seed with a heavy conical bill · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The rank margin the geese mow is also a seed crop, and a finch takes it at the other end of the stem.

The claim. The sesarmid crabs feed on it.

From this web's own account. it is this conditioned, protein-enriched litter that the sesarmid crabs prefer and the amphipods work over · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Leaf-eating crabs across the mangrove world take aged leaf over fresh, which is a preference for the fungi and their work as much as for the leaf. Authored as grazing rather than predation because that is what it is: a crab working over a conditioned leaf and the film on it, not a chase.

The claim. The magpie goose feeds on it.

From the book. Where the wetland runs to rank sedge and grass, magpie geese (*Anseranas semipalmata*) graze in clattering mobs, and out on the open water the ducks, grebes and cormorants dabble and dive. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The one grazer in the waders' procession: where the swamp runs to rank sedge and grass, the geese mow it in clattering mobs.

The claim. The young fish and prawns hunt it.

From this web's own account. the young fish and prawns that shelter among the mangrove roots take them in quantity as the tide comes up over the litter · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The nursery does not live on cover alone. A flooding tide over a litter bank is a moving meal, and this is much of what the young fish are there for.

The claim. The azure kingfisher hunts it.

From this web's own account. then drops straight in for small fish, prawns and the young of the estuary's crustaceans · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The nursery is not a safe room, only a safer one. Cover keeps the big fish out and lets a bird the size of a matchbox in.

The claim. The bar-tailed godwit hunts it.

From the book. Birds such as the bar-tailed godwit breed in the brief Arctic summer of Alaska and Siberia and then fly south to spend the rest of the year feeding on flats like these, returning north to breed again. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. What the flats feed it is the buried life of the same paragraph: worms, crabs and molluscs, the harvest of all that trapped sediment and rotting leaf.

The claim. The barnacles feed on it.

From this web's own account. it opens the lid and combs the water with a fan of feathered legs, taking the plankton the tide brings past · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A filter feeder does not go to its food; it waits for the tide to bring it, and that is why the estuary's hard surfaces are crowded and its mud is not.

The claim. The mud crab hunts it.

From this web's own account. the mud crab's heavy claws are built for exactly this: a shell crushed, opened and emptied · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The book describes claws that can crush a shell and never says whose. Shellfish are what a heavy-clawed estuarine crab eats wherever one has been watched.

The claim. The buried bivalves feed on it.

From this web's own account. Each draws water in, strains the plankton and suspended detritus out of it, and pushes it back clean · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Filtration is a service the estuary gets for nothing: clearer water, and more light reaching the seagrass.

The claim. The black-necked stork hunts it.

From the book. They turn it into the abundant, protein-rich food that the frogs, the fish and the waterbirds all draw on. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The tall bird at the top of an economy the invertebrates run: the waterbirds draw on the food they make, this one included.

The claim. The bleating tree frog hunts it.

From the book. For a frog the wetland is everything at once: the water to breed in, the cover to hide in, the insects to eat. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The last and loudest voice in the chorus, drawing on the same wetland supply of insects as the rest of it.

The claim. The comb-crested jacana hunts it.

From the book. They turn it into the abundant, protein-rich food that the frogs, the fish and the waterbirds all draw on. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The jacana picks its living off the floating pavement, and what it picks is the food the wetland's invertebrates make.

The claim. The dragonflies hunt it.

From this web's own account. Most of it is spent underwater among the stems as a nymph, an ambush hunter of the swamp's invertebrates and of tadpoles · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The wetland's own predator, working from inside the crowd it hunts. The flying adult is the dispersal stage of an animal that spends its life on the bottom.

The claim. The eastern curlew hunts it.

From the book. The largest of these travellers, the eastern curlew, works the flats in a different register, stalking the mud on long legs and probing it with a preposterous down-curved bill, the better part of a hand-span of it, shaped precisely to reach down a crab's burrow and draw the crab out. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The bill is shaped to one job: reaching down a burrow and drawing the crab out of the flats' buried larder.

The claim. The eastern mosquitofish hunts it.

From this web's own account. it works steadily through the swamp's invertebrates, the small crustaceans and the insect larvae of the shallows that the natives are also living on · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. What this fish eats, and the reason it was let loose at all. Until August 2026 this row named the Australian bass instead, on a book sentence about the eggs of frogs and native fish at large: a guild-level claim pinned to one species, and to a fish that spawns down in the brackish reaches rather than in the still water the mosquitofish holds. General ecology of the animal, not a local count.

The claim. The fiddler crabs feed on it.

From the book. He cannot feed with the big claw, which is purely for show and for combat, so he shovels mud to his mouth with the small one, sorting out the edible film and dropping the spent sediment in neat pellets around his door. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The edible film sorted from each mouthful is the microbial skin of the flat. The big claw is for rivals and for females and earns nothing at the table.

The claim. The great egret hunts it.

From the book. They turn it into the abundant, protein-rich food that the frogs, the fish and the waterbirds all draw on. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The invertebrates turn rotting litter into the protein everything above draws on, and the egret is first among the waders as the swamp fills.

The claim. The green tree frog hunts it.

From the book. For a frog the wetland is everything at once: the water to breed in, the cover to hide in, the insects to eat. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A generalist by the book's account, but on this floodplain its table is the one the invertebrates set.

The claim. The mud whelks feed on it.

From this web's own account. thick blunt-shelled snails the size of a thumb that plough the surface and rasp the film of algae, bacteria and fine detritus off it · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Grazing a film, not chasing an animal: the vocabulary's hunting verb is the nearest word it has for a snail rasping the mud's living skin.

The claim. The bar-tailed godwit hunts it.

From this web's own account. a bar-tailed godwit's long bill is a tool for reaching a worm that has withdrawn down its burrow · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Bill length on a shorebird is a depth. The long-billed waders take the worms that pull down deepest, so several species can work one flat without taking the same food.

The claim. The osprey hunts it.

From this web's own account. Sea mullet and the other schooling fish of the open channel are its staple here · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A bird that eats nothing but fish is a direct readout of a river's stock: an estuary with ospreys on it usually has something in it.

The claim. The Sydney rock oyster feeds on it.

From this web's own account. That is what makes an incoming tide worth waiting for if you are the Sydney rock oyster on a mangrove root, straining the passing water for food · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The book has the oyster straining litres a day and does not say what out. This is what: the drift the tide delivers.

The claim. The young fish and prawns feed on it.

From this web's own account. The young fish and prawns of the shallows chase the larger drifters down and eat them directly · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The estuary feeds its young twice over, once through the drift in the water and once through the detritus in the mud.

The claim. The pobblebonk hunts it.

From the book. For a frog the wetland is everything at once: the water to breed in, the cover to hide in, the insects to eat. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Named for its own call in the same chorus, and living on the same three things: water to breed in, cover to hide in, insects to eat.

The claim. The royal spoonbill hunts it.

From the book. They turn it into the abundant, protein-rich food that the frogs, the fish and the waterbirds all draw on. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The spoonbill hunts by touch, sweeping the shallows for anything that moves, and most of what moves there is the swamp's invertebrate crowd.

The claim. The sacred kingfisher hunts it.

From this web's own account. The fiddler crabs at their burrow doors are the obvious target, and a bird will work the same stretch of bank on every low tide · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The waving claw that answers a rival also answers a kingfisher, which is part of why a fiddler crab never strays far from its door.

The claim. The young fish and prawns hunt it.

From this web's own account. the small fish carried up onto the flat by the same tide take the wrigglers out of the pans before they ever fly · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Most of a mosquito's life is spent underwater being eaten, and in a salt pan the eater is a fish: a pan the tide reaches is a pan small fish can hunt. This row named the dragonflies until August 2026, which was wrong. They belong at the fresh end of the floodplain and their nymphs need months of standing water, and a saltmarsh pan is salt or saltier and dry again within days.

The claim. The sea mullet feeds on it.

From this web's own account. it takes mouthfuls of surface sediment, strains the film of algae, bacteria and fine detritus out of it with a sieve in its throat · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The shortest route in the estuary from mud to meat. A mullet is a detritus feeder with scales on.

The claim. The white-bellied sea-eagle hunts it.

From this web's own account. Sea-eagles, cormorants and the estuary's larger fish all take them · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A surface-schooling fish in an open channel is the raptor's opportunity, so the big fish-eaters of this coast hold estuaries rather than forests.

The claim. The soldier crabs feed on it.

From the book. They feed as they go, scooping up the surface mud, sieving out the film of algae and rotting matter, and leaving a trail of little rolled pellets of cleaned sand behind them. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The film sieved out of each scoop of surface mud is the living skin of the flat, algae and rotting matter in one mouthful. The hunting verb is the vocabulary's nearest word for grazing a film.

The claim. The striated heron hunts it.

From this web's own account. takes small fish, prawns and crabs off the exposed mud and out of the shallow runnels between the pneumatophores · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A draining flat concentrates the nursery into puddles, and this is the bird that specialises in the last few minutes before they empty.

The claim. The striped marsh frog hunts it.

From the book. For a frog the wetland is everything at once: the water to breed in, the cover to hide in, the insects to eat. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The wetland is everything at once to a frog, and the eating half of that is the insects the swamp's invertebrate crowd supplies.

The claim. The welcome swallow hunts it.

From this web's own account. The saltmarsh mosquitoes that come off the flooded pans in clouds are exactly the sort of thing it lives on · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The marsh's biting nuisance is also its export. A hatch of mosquitoes is a pulse of protein leaving the flat in the air.

The claim. The yellowfin bream hunts it.

From this web's own account. crushing small shellfish with flat molar-like teeth and taking crabs, worms and the burrowing shrimp out of the soft mud · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Yabbies are bait for the same reason they are prey: this is the fish they are being offered to, and it is already eating them.

The claim. The yellowfin bream hunts it.

From this web's own account. working the mangrove edge and the oyster-crusted roots, crushing small shellfish with flat molar-like teeth and taking crabs, worms and the burrowing shrimp out of the soft mud · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The buried larder is not only the shorebirds'. It is worked from above at low tide and from the water at high tide, by different mouths.

The claim. The common crow butterfly raises its young on it.

From this web's own account. The milky mangrove, the blind-your-eyes tree, defends itself with a caustic white sap, and the crow's larvae eat its leaves anyway, taking the toxins up and carrying them into the adult · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The milky mangrove is one of the crow's larval host plants along this coast. A plant defence that stops nearly everything is worth beating, because whatever beats it eats alone.

The claim. The Australian bass lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The Australian bass (*Percalates novemaculeata*) spends its life in fresh water but runs downstream to spawn in the brackish reaches, cued by the winter floods; the eels, longfin and shortfin, go furthest of all. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The fish that ties the floodplain to the tide. Its whole life is fresh water, and its next generation begins in the brackish reaches, on a cue the winter floods deliver.

The claim. The bar-tailed godwit lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The estuaries and bays of this coast are a link in that chain, the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, and the wider Moreton Bay is recognised internationally, as a Ramsar wetland, for exactly this reason. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. One estuary is not scenery to this bird but a link in a chain strung halfway around the globe, and the mud is the fuel stop the journey is timed to.

The claim. The barnacles live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. Every hard surface in the tidal band is furred with barnacles: on the grey mangrove's trunk and pneumatophores, on oyster shell, on rock and pylon and boat hull · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. In an estuary of soft mud, a mangrove trunk is real estate: anything hard is contested ground.

The claim. The reed beds grow in it.

From the guide. Behind the tidal reach, where rain and groundwater pool but the sea seldom comes, freshwater reed, sedge and paperbark reassemble. · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Above the tide's reach the same page turns fresh, and reed is the plant a rich floodplain grows there. Yandina Creek, upstream, is the proof of concept the page rests on rather than a measured return on this ground, so the edge claims the expectation and names its limit.

The claim. The saltmarsh samphires grow in it.

From the guide. Where the tide runs in freely, grey mangrove and then saltmarsh return to the lowest, saltiest ground. · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The project's whole method is to let the water back and leave the sorting to the tide, and the saltiest ground is where the saltmarsh comes back first. The claim is what a re-wetted flat is expected to do, on the banding any undisturbed estuary falls into; no survey of what has established on this ground is on file here, so the edge stays at expectation.

The claim. The green tree frog lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. The bark itself is habitat: the green tree frog, geckoes and insects all live in the peeling layers, wedged in out of the sun · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A tree that sheds its own bark in sheets is building shelter as a by-product, and on a floodplain with few hollows that matters.

The claim. The chestnut-breasted mannikin lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. they nest in the reed beds themselves, a domed ball of grass low in the stems · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A reed bed is more than cover. Standing dead stems are the nest material and the nest site both, so a mown or burnt margin loses the birds before it loses the reeds.

The claim. The comb-crested jacana lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. And out on the floating waterlily leaves walks the comb-crested jacana (*Irediparra gallinacea*), the "lily-trotter," whose enormously elongated toes spread its weight so well that it strides across the pads as if walking on the water itself. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The toes are the whole point. Spread wide enough to stand on a lily pad, they make a floor out of open water.

The claim. The dragonflies live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. the dragonflies hold their beats over the reed beds and the lily pads · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Standing stems are the whole apparatus: a perch to hold a territory from, a ladder for the nymph to climb out on, and cover for it before it does.

The claim. The eastern curlew lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. It too breeds in the far north and spends the rest of the year on flats like these, and it has become a grim barometer of their health: as the mudflats of the flyway have been drained, walled and built over, the eastern curlew has declined so steeply that it is now listed as critically endangered. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Most of this bird's year is spent on flats like this one, and they are the thing it cannot do without.

The claim. The green tree frog lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. A low growl from the reeds is the green tree frog (*Litoria caerulea*), a fat, placid, blue-green animal as happy in a suburban downpipe as a swamp. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The chorus paragraph places each voice as well as naming it, and this low growl comes from inside the reeds.

The claim. The grey mangrove grows in it.

From the guide. Walk out onto any tidal flat on this coast at low water and the tree standing in it will almost certainly be the same one: the grey mangrove, *Avicennia marina*, the most widespread mangrove in Australia and the owner of the middle band, estuary after estuary from the Noosa to the Pumicestone Passage. · read it in place →

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The warrant is a field guide's placement of the species as the dominant mangrove of the region's tidal flats, inside the guide's competence. What the tree does to the estuary once it has arrived, trapping mud and building new ground, is the page's own story and is not claimed as part of this edge.

The claim. The longfin eel lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The longfin (*Anguilla reinhardtii*) and the shortfin (*A. australis*) feed and grow in these tea-dark lowland waters for years, even decades — fattening quietly, seemingly settled — then slip away downstream, out through the estuary and off into the open sea, to spawn, once, far out in the Coral Sea, and die there. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The estuary is the one door of the eel's one journey: decades in the lowland swamps, spent on a single passage out through the tide that it never returns from.

The claim. The marine couch grows in it.

From this web's own account. Behind the samphires, on ground the tide reaches only on its bigger days, the saltmarsh runs to grass · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The mangroves get the credit for building land, but the marsh grass does the same job one band higher up, on the tides that only arrive twice a month.

The claim. The milky mangrove grows in it.

From the book. The milky mangrove (*Excoecaria agallocha*), known along this coast, with feeling, as the blind-your-eyes tree, is barely a mangrove at all in the engineering sense: it keeps to the drier landward margin, grows no snorkel roots and few salt glands, and hedges its bets by dropping its leaves in a flush of scarlet when the going turns hard. · the book manuscript

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The scrubby fringe the tide reaches only on its higher days is where the regional flora puts this tree: drier ground, no snorkel roots, few salt glands.

The claim. The mud crab lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. It lies dug into a bank or a root tangle through the day and hunts the flats as the tide covers them, and it is prized enough on the plate that the baited crab pot is as much a fixture of these creeks as the mangroves themselves. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A creek that always holds a little water by day, and the whole flat to work once the tide is over it: the estuary is both halves of this animal's life.

The claim. The mud's buried life lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The mudflats exposed at low tide, which look to us like the very definition of empty, are dense with buried life: worms, crabs, molluscs, the rich harvest of all that trapped sediment and rotting leaf. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The larder is buried in the flat itself, and the flat is what the tide builds: trapped sediment and rotting leaf, packed with animals nobody sees until a bird pulls one out.

The claim. The mudskipper lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. This is a mudskipper, a small goby that has taken the estuary's amphibious logic to its conclusion and simply left the water. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The estuary's own logic carried to its end. A place that is water half the day and mud the other half will eventually produce a fish that can do both.

The claim. The Noosa oyster reef rests on it.

From the guide. But they were reefs in every functional sense, built up over generations by native oysters cementing themselves onto one another's shells until they formed low, hard, living banks across the muddy bed. · read it in place →

The source. The Nature Conservancy Australia (2022). Noosa River — restoring shellfish reefs (Huon Mundy Reefs). The Nature Conservancy Australia. https://www.natureaustralia.org.au/what-we-do/our-priorities/oceans/ocean-stories/restoring-shellfish-reefs/noosa-river/.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The record is the restoration itself: foundation reefs have been laid across several sites in the lower Noosa River since 2022, so this habitat's presence in that estuary is a matter of public project record rather than inference. It is a record of the Noosa River and of no other, which is why the row sits here and not a tier higher. Authored as seen-here until August 2026, when the same row on the Maroochy web was reading as a claim about the Maroochy River, a whole catchment south of the reefs it describes.

The claim. The young fish and prawns live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From the guide. Small fish, prawns and crabs that would be hopelessly exposed on open mud find crevices to hide and grow in, so the reef quietly restocks the fishery around it, as the seagrass meadows and mangrove roots of the same river do. · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The reef's second free job: shelter. The nursery function is the accepted shellfish-reef ecology the restoration is betting on; a local survey of what settles into the new reefs is not on file yet, so the edge claims expectation.

The claim. The young fish and prawns live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. the cage of them is one of the best shelters in the estuary for young fish and prawns · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A stilt-root thicket is structurally the densest cover in an estuary, and cover is what the nursery runs on.

The claim. The river mangrove grows in it.

From the book. The river mangrove (*Aegiceras corniculatum*) is a shrubby, many-stemmed tree of the upper estuary and the landward fringe, its smallish leaves faintly rimed with excreted salt. · the book manuscript

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. A field guide's placement of the species: the shrubby, many-stemmed mangrove of the upper estuary and the landward fringe, a step seaward of the milky mangrove.

The claim. The saltmarsh mosquitoes live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. Salt-marsh mosquitoes lay in the damp mud of the pans and the crab holes of the high flat, and the eggs sit dry until a spring tide or a storm floods them · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The nuisance and the marsh are the same fact. A pan that dries and floods on the moon's timetable is a nursery nothing else can use so well.

The claim. The young fish and prawns live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From the book. In fact saltmarsh is a crucial high-tide feeding ground: when the spring tides flood it, fish push up onto the marsh to gorge, and when it drains, the crabs and the birds take over. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The marsh is a high-tide dinner table. When the spring tides flood the samphire flat the fish push up onto it to feed, and drop back as it drains.

The claim. The young fish and prawns live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From the book. Seagrass is the pasture of the estuary. It feeds the things that graze it directly, most famously the dugong and the green turtle, which crop the meadows like underwater cattle, and it shelters yet another generation of juvenile fish and prawns. · the book manuscript

The source. McPhee, D. (2017). Environmental History and Ecology of Moreton Bay. CSIRO Publishing.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The meadow does two jobs, pasture for the grazers and cover for the young. McPhee's Moreton Bay account is the warrant for the nursery half.

The claim. The shortfin eel lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The longfin (*Anguilla reinhardtii*) and the shortfin (*A. australis*) feed and grow in these tea-dark lowland waters for years, even decades — fattening quietly, seemingly settled — then slip away downstream, out through the estuary and off into the open sea, to spawn, once, far out in the Coral Sea, and die there. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Named beside the longfin among the swamp's great travellers, and bound out through the same estuary door.

The claim. The swamp oak grows in it.

From the book. And where the floodplain runs down toward the estuary and the freshwater turns brackish, the paperbarks hand over to the **swamp oak** (*Casuarina glauca*), its fine, drooping branchlets the same reduced foliage as the she-oaks of the dry ridges and, like them, fed by root nodules that pull nitrogen from the air; it suckers into dense stands on the saline mud, a coastal forest now scarce enough to be listed as endangered. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The tree of the handover line, where fresh water turns brackish and the paperbarks give way; it suckers into dense stands on the saline mud.

The claim. The young fish and prawns live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From the book. The region's rivers and the wider bay once held extensive oyster reefs, dense living banks of shell that cleaned the water and sheltered fish, and that were dredged and harvested away within a few generations until almost none were left. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The claim belongs to the reefs the oysters once built: dense living banks of shell that cleaned the water and sheltered fish, dredged away within a few generations.

The claim. The white-bellied sea-eagle lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. A pair holds the same stretch of river for years and nests in a tall tree above the mangroves · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The territory is the river, not the tree. A pair needs a whole working estuary under it, and a resident pair is a fair sign the water below is producing.

The claim. The young fish and prawns live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From the book. The great majority of the fish and prawns that the region's anglers and trawlers pull from the sea spend the vulnerable juvenile stage of their lives in the estuaries, hiding among the mangrove roots and the seagrass, where the water is rich with food and the cover is thick enough to keep the bigger predators out. · the book manuscript

The source. McPhee, D. (2017). Environmental History and Ecology of Moreton Bay. CSIRO Publishing.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The maternity ward of the fishery: mangrove roots and seagrass thick enough to keep the bigger predators out, in water the detritus economy keeps rich.

The claim. The red-spot mould lives at its expense.

From this web's own account. a waterborne mould that a healthy fish would shrug off gets a hold in the damaged skin and eats into the muscle beneath · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The mould is the visible half of a chemical problem. What it really marks is drained acid-sulfate ground somewhere upstream.

The claim. The she-oak mistletoe lives at its expense.

From this web's own account. it has driven a wooden peg into the branch and drinks the tree's water and dissolved minerals straight out of it, making its own sugar in its own leaves · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. A half-parasite: it steals the plumbing but does its own photosynthesis, which is why an infected swamp oak is usually inconvenienced rather than doomed.

The claim. The swamp's soil fungi trade minerals for sugar with it.

From this web's own account. The same soil holds mycorrhizal fungi sheathed onto living roots, trading minerals they mine out of the peat for sugar from the tree, and the swamp oak on the brackish margin runs the same arrangement underground as everything around it · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The trade is the ordinary one under almost every tree on the coast: sugar down, minerals up. The swamp oak's nitrogen nodules are a separate connection again, with bacteria rather than fungi.

The claim. The amphipods break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. chewing softened leaf into fragments small enough for the mud's microbes to finish · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The middle step of the shredding chain, between the crabs that bury a whole leaf and the microbes that finish the crumbs.

The claim. The leaf-rotting fungi break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. Marine fungi and bacteria settle on it within days, softening the tissue and stripping out the tannins that make fresh mangrove leaf close to inedible · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The rot is not the end of the leaf but the start of it. Conditioning by fungi and bacteria is what turns a tough, tannin-loaded mangrove leaf into something an animal can digest.

The claim. The mud's microbes break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From the book. passing out the remains as fragments that microbes break down further. That flood of shredded, rotting, microbe-rich leaf matter (detritus) is the base of the estuarine food web, the reason the mud is so productive, and the ultimate source of the fatness of the prawns and fish everyone downstream is so keen to catch. · the book manuscript

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Microbe-rich is the book's own word for finished detritus: the microbes turn shredded leaf into food, and that food is the base of the estuarine web.

The claim. The sesarmid crabs break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From the book. They are what makes the estuary fertile. A mangrove forest sheds an enormous tonnage of leaves, and these crabs harvest them, hauling them underground to shred and eat, passing out the remains as fragments that microbes break down further. · the book manuscript

The source. Robertson, A.I. & Daniel, P.A. (1989). The influence of crabs on litter processing in high intertidal mangrove forests in tropical Australia. Oecologia 78(2): 191–198. DOI 10.1007/BF00377155.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The estuary runs on dead leaves, and these crabs start the process: leaves hauled underground, shredded, and passed out as the fragments the microbes finish. Measured at 71 to 79 per cent of the litter fall in tropical Queensland.

The record. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00377155

The claim. The swamp's invertebrates break it down when it falls.

From the book. They live, in the main, on detritus: the slow rain of dead leaves and sedge-stems rotting in the shallows. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The wetland read from the bottom. Dead sedge-stems rotting in the shallows are what the swamp's unseen crowd eats, and what the frogs and the waterbirds are made of.

The claim. The swamp's soil fungi break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. breaking down the fall of bark, leaf and twig that the broad-leaved paperbark drops into standing water · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Rot is slow in waterlogged ground, and that is why a paperbark swamp banks carbon: the fungi are working, but not fast enough to keep up with the fall.

The claim. The burrowing shrimp feed the soil beneath them.

From this web's own account. That pumping is the flat's plumbing: it carries oxygen down into black airless sediment and flushes the sulphides back out · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. The mangrove solves airless mud with snorkels above it. The shrimp solve it from inside, and the tree roots in the ground they turn over.

The claim. The mudflat worms feed the soil beneath them.

From this web's own account. Their digging turns the sediment over and carries oxygen down into ground the seagrass meadows root in, which would otherwise go black a centimetre below the surface · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made on this river yet. Bioturbation is the unglamorous half of a healthy flat: worked sediment holds oxygen, and rooted plants can only stand in ground that has some.