The site several large waterbird nesting colonies; other birds that breed in relatively large numbers include Little Black, Little Pied and Pied Cormorants, Darters, Australian White Ibises, Royal Spoonbills, Australian Pelicans, Great, Intermediate and Cattle Egrets, Pied Herons and Nankeen Night Herons.
The site was identified as an IBA because it supports Australasian Bitterns, Superb Parrots, Flame Robins and Diamond Firetails, as well as large numbers of breeding waterbirds when flooded.
It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports populations of various water- and wetland birds including Swan Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, Whooper Swans, Oriental Storks, White-naped Cranes and Red-crowned Cranes.
The Paleocene bird Scaniornis was described from fossil bones aged some 60 million years or more, which were found in the Limnhamn limestone; it was apparently a waterbird and might have been an early flamingo relative.
Next to the town is Lake Victoria a shallow saline lake that is part of the Lonsdale Lakes Nature Reserve and an important site for the waterbirds and migratory waders that form part of the population using the Ramsar-listed Swan Bay wetland system.