With State Forests and National parks visible on each horizon, Bellbunya is well placed to offer a well placed nature refuge, buffer and regeneration zone.

Bellbunya has an underground river, springs, a 5 megalitre lagoon and the headwaters of Belli Creek. The property encompasses an impressive variety of native fauna and flora, including native fish species and an extraordinary array of frogs and birds.  

Bellbunya plays host to rare and threatened species,  including the  Cascade Tree Frog, (Litoria pearsoniana) which is listed as Vulnerable, and the endangered Giant barred frog (Taudactylus diurnus).  

This sizeable frog, which grows up to 11.5cm, has experienced a serious decline since the 1980s. Known to occur in the Belli Creek and Eumundi areas, Mary River and Upper Stanley catchments and Conondale National Park, it has suffered from habitat loss, particularly creek bank clearing.  The stabilisation and revegetation of the Belli Creek banks has been happening at Bellbunya for 20 years, and together with the introduction of artificial frog ponds and low toxicity environment, are helping to support these and other native species.

Bellbunya is also home to the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly, (Ornithoptera richmondia) one of Australia’s biggest and most spectacular butterflies.  With a wing-span of up to 15 centremetres (6 inches),

the Butterfly used to be found throughout the region.  Due to habitat loss and invasive species, the butterfly is now listed as vulnerable and is only found in 2 areas, one on the Gold Coast and the other here on the Sunshine Coast.  

Excitingly, Bellbunya is known to host the almost extinct Coxen's Fig Parrot amongst its many Fig Trees.

Description:

Coxen's Fig Parrots are small parrots with a stout build - averaging 15cm in length, including their short tails. The head has distinctive red and blue markings with a prominent blue foreheadin adults.

These predominantly green parrots have disproportionately large heads and bills. The plumage is a rich green above and a yellowish green below. The sides of its breast are yellow. The flight feathers are a deep blue and dark grey. When perching, two obvious red spots on the back can be seen, representing the inner edges of the flight feathers.  The bill is pale grey at the base and blackish towards the tip.

The male has a blue forehead with scattered red feathers surrounding this and on the lores (the regions between the eyes and bill on the side of a bird's head). His cheeks are orange-red, bordered below by a band of mauve-blue. The female is similar, except she has a smaller blue patch on the forehead, and fewer or no red on the forehead and lores. Her orange-red cheek patch is duller and less extensive than that of the male.

They can be distinguished from small lorikeets by their short tail and lack of underwing color.


Breeding:

Little is known about the reproductive habits of this species. It is believed that they excavate nest chambers in dead or decaying tree limbs or trunks in, or close to, the rainforest. Each clutch usually consists of two eggs. Breeding season in their natural habitat is thought to commence in August and may go on until December or January.


Diet:

The bird prefers feeding on the fruits of fig trees, but also feeds on other fruiting rainforest species. It can be detected by discarded pieces of fig flesh falling from its feeding tree onto the ground.