The Land Crabs of Christmas Island

The land crabs of Christmas Island are remarkable for their abundance and the role they play in the ecology of the island's rainforest. Christmas Island is home to twenty-three land or freshwater crabs.

Australia Post issued the fauna stamp set for their territory , Christmas Island, on June 7, 2011 and features the specific species the Land Crabs which available in Christmas Island. The issue comprises of 4 postage stamps which depicted   Red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis),  Robber crab (Birgus latro), Jackson's crab (Karstarma jacksoni), and Blue crab (Discoplax hirtipes) .

Red crab  or Gecarcoidea natalis, is a species of land crab that is endemic to Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Its carapace is up to 116 mm wide, rounded, and encloses the gills. The claws are usually of equal size, unless one becomes injured or detached, in which case the limb will regenerate.The male crabs are generally larger than the females, while adult females have a much broader abdomen (only apparent above 3 years of age) and usually have smaller claws.

Flowers of Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands Post  has issued the stamp series features the coastal flower which can live in shoreline. This issue stamps depict the Ipomoea pes-caprae, Hisbicus insularis, Suriana maritima and Morinda citrifolia.

Ipomoea pes-caprae, also known as Beach Morning Glory or Goat's Foot, is a common pantropical creeping vine belonging to the family Convolvulaceae. Goat's Foot is common on the sand dunes of Australia's upper north coast of New South Wales and can also be found along the entire Queensland coastline.

It grows on the upper parts of beaches and endures salted air. It is one of the most common and most widely distributed salt tolerant plants and provides one of the best known examples of oceanic dispersal. Its seeds float and are unaffected by salt water.

Australian Kingfishers

 

On October 26, 2010, Australia  Post released the stamp series depicts Australian Kingfishers, illustrated by wildlife artist Christopher Pope.This issue comprises of 4 postage stamps depicts Sacred Kingfishers, Blue-winged kookaburra, Yellow-billed Kingfishers, and Red-backed Kingfishers.

Kingfishers comprise a distinctive and spectacular group. There are 95 species worldwide, 10 occurring in Australia. Two species are endemic – the Red-backed Kingfisher and the Laughing Kookaburra – and eight are shared with other countries.

Kingfishers, which include kookaburras, belong to the bird order Coraciiformes, Its vary in size. The smallest species is around 10cm in length, the largest – the Laughing Kookaburra – is around 45cm. 

 
Sacred Kingfisher

In Australia, The Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) is primarily a woodland kingfisher that occurs   in eucalypt forests, melaleuca forests, woodland and paperbark forests.It is 19–23 cm  long, and feeds on insects, small crustaceans, fish, small rodents and reptiles but reports of it eating small finches are rare. Sacred Kingfishers lay about five eggs.

Bush Tucker

 

The Bush Tucker features five Australian plants traditionally eaten by Aboriginal people. The part of the plant consumed as depicted varies from the tuber (murnong); fruit (quandong and lilly-pilly); seed (acacia); and flower (honey grevillea). The featured plants are found in a range of climates and locations throughout Australia.

The plant foods are shown against a background of a woven basket or wooden coolamon. These containers, from the collections of the Museum of Victoria, are appropriate to particular regions where the foods are found.

The issue date of stamp is 3 September 2002 and designed by Janet Boschen from Australia Post Design Studio.
 

 
Lilly-pilly (Acmena smithii):

 

There are several varieties of lilly-pilly fruits that may be eaten. Acmena smithii or lilly-pilly , depicted on the stamp, grows best in the moist soil of mountain gullies from Victoria to Northern Queensland. The pale mauve or white berry-like fruits are pleasantly tart and juicy and can be picked and eaten raw from the tree. Acmena smithii is a common urban street tree. 

Australian Wildflowers - 2007

There are some 18,000 species of flowering plants native to Australia, grouped in about 200 families. Like the continent's distinctive fauna, the flora has evolved in isolation for 50 million years, and many plants and flowers are found nowhere else on earth. On February 13, 2007 , these stamps issued as  the third issue in the Australian Wildflowers series. 

Tasmanian Christmas Bell (Blandfordia punicea) is endemic to Tasmania. Its leaves are narrow and linear to one metre in length and one centimetre in width. It flowers in summer, with tubular, waxy clusters at the end of a stout stem up to one metre in length. Its flowers are up to four centimetres long and two centimetres wide, and it prefers moist acid soils in heathlands.

 

The Green Spider Flower (Grevillea mucronulata) is widespread from coast to mountains, in open forest and woodlands in New South Wales. Flowering in winter and spring, it is a spreading shrub to 2.5 metres high with reddish branches.

The flowers are green and in spider-like racemes about five centimetres across. Each flower has a hairy, dark purplish-red style to two centimetres long with a green tip.

Sturt’s Desert Rose  or Gossypium sturtianum  is  wildflower that widespread in the dry inland regions of mainland Australia. Flowering most of the year, it is found mainly in rocky gullies but also on sand plains. The hibiscus-like flower is a delicate lilac with a red throat spot.

The bush is an erect, open shrub growing up to two metres high and its hairless, blue-green leaves are scented when crushed. The plants are perennial and live for about 10 years. Sturt’s Desert Rose is the floral emblem of the Northern Territory.

Phebalium whitei is the yellow-flowering shrub which is restricted to the granite outcrops of border ranges in Queensland. This spreading and open shrub reaches one metre in height and flowers in spring. It has brownish branch- lets which bear conspicuous clusters of one to six flowers and rusty-coloured buds.

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Wildbird of Australia

Australian Post Office issued 4 stamps with series of wild bird found in their country, Spotted Harrier and Red Goshawk in 98 c value, Nankeen Kestrel and Wedge-Tailed Eagle in 49 c value.

Spotted Harrier,or Circus assimilis, also known as the Smoke Hawk, is a large Australasian bird of prey in the family Accipitridae.The species can distinguished by grey upperparts, chestnut facial disc, and dark rump and also has wing length ranges between 375 and 470 mm, with females being larger. The Spotted Harrier inhabits Sulawesi and the Lesser Sundae Islands and is sparsely distributed throughout mainland Australia. They inhabit open country, like in arid and semiarid regions. Their feed is ground birds, rabbits, rodents and lizards.

Red Goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus) is probably the rarest Australian bird of prey. It is found mainly in the savanna woodlands of northern Australia, particularly near watercourses. The Red Goshawk as a very large member of the goshawk subfamily, but now as one of the Australasian old endemic raptors. It is believed that the ancestors of these birds, possibly together with a handful of species from South-east Asia and Africa.

Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) is the largest raptor with the distinctive character brown colour with length size around 1.2 m, fairly broad wings averaging over 2.5 m, fully feathered legs, and an unmistakable wedge-shaped tail and is the most common of all the world's .It has because of both its tail and its size — it is one of the largest birds of prey in the world. The female Wedge-tailed Eagle is much larger than the male, around 4.2 kg – 5.5 kg. Males are around 3.2–4 kg.

Wedge-tails are found throughout Australia, including Tasmania, and southern New Guinea in almost all habitats. The preferred area are the lightly timbered and open country.
The Wedge-tails can eat almost anything of a suitable size, mostly carrion, red kangaroo, and young calves. Wedge-tailed Eagles are often seen by the roadside in rural Australia, feeding on animals that have been killed in collisions with vehicles.
The Wedge-tailed Eagle is one of twelve species of large predominantly dark-coloured eagles in the genus Aquila found worldwide.

Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides) is one of the smallest falcons, and does not rely on speed to catch its prey. Their distinctive characters are a small, slim falcon (about 31 to 35 cm long), brown above and white or off-white below, with a black tail tip. Plumage varies considerably in detail, and some birds can look very scruffy, but the slim build, small size and distinctive straight-winged hovering habit make identification easy.
A very common and easily seen raptor, the Nankeen Kestrel is found in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, and is an irregular visitor to New Zealand.
Nankeen Kestrels are adaptable and hunt in simply perching in an exposed position.