The riparian zone is a biological hotspot, serving important functions that determine aquatic health and support a wide variety of flora and fauna, many of which are uniquely adapted to the aquatic-terrestrial nature of the ecosystem. Birds are an important component of riparian ecosystems. Riparian bird communities are diverse and unique, and are involved in both aquatic and terrestrial processes. Riparian zones, however, are vulnerable – both through clearing and grazing of native vegetation as well as invasion by exotic flora. While the influence of exotic riparian plants on aquatic macroinvertebrate community assemblages has been widely studied an understanding of vertebrate responses to invasive plants is still widely incomplete. This study compares avian diversity and the representation of feeding and riparian dependence guilds across a number of small order streams within Bremer River Catchment, South-east Queensland. The chosen streams cover a gradient that ranges from native vegetation dominated ecosystems to non-native dominated ecosystems. Within this gradient are sites that consist of either mostly native vegetation, a mixture of native and non-native vegetation (novel), or mostly non-native vegetation. The non-native plant that dominates many sections of the Bremer Catchment is Celtis sinensis (Chinese Elm). In this Honours project riparian bird community composition has been across sites using extensive bird surveys, to understand how the physical and biological structure of the vegetation drives avian communities. The representation of avian guilds within each location was identified, in order to understand how vegetation influences the presence or absence of birds that have specific roles or needs in riparian ecosystems. Chinese elm, C. sinensis, is fulfilling a structural role within these degraded stream ecosystems, and is providing habitat for riparian birds. Initial data suggests novel sites contain more generalist species while riparian dependent species are restricted to sites where native vegetation dominates.