Record numbers and species of birds have been spotted across Australia in this year's annual count of our feathered friends.
Nearly two million birds were counted across yards, parks, wetlands and beaches by thousands of enthusiasts during the week-long Aussie Backyard Bird Count, which ended on Sunday.
Among them were 635 species ranging from kookaburras and Australian magpies to the blue-breasted fairy-wren and black-throated finch.
Organisers say while the figures from the fourth annual national bird count are only preliminary, they dwarfed last year's totals of 1.4 million birds and 576 species.
Birdlife Australia spokesman Sean Dooley says the rainbow lorikeet, noisy miner and Australian magpie were again the most common birds recorded, but there was also a "phenomenal" leap in the number of scarlet honeyeaters popping up in Victoria.
"They are quite common along coastal areas in NSW and Queensland and pretty rare in Victoria," he told AAP on Monday.
"But this year, they've erupted right across the state.
"We went from 17 in Victoria last year to 139 this year, so eight times as many as last year."
Mr Dooley said last winter's extremely dry weather in Queensland could have prompted the honeyeaters to move south to find food.
He expects to uncover a similar trend in regards to more inland bush and water birds being seen in coastal areas when he analyses the data.
"We've had anecdotal reports of dry-country birds being seen along coastal areas in Queensland and NSW and that's obviously where people live so we are expecting a jump up in numbers of inland birds in people's backyards," Mr Dooley said.
"It just shows that our urban areas and backyards are connected to a broader landscape."
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