The island is the only location in Serbia of the bird's little nest fungi, which is used for the antioxidant extraction. Forests cover and area of , or 57% of the island. Tree species include walnut tree and European nettle tree. In November 2011 some 2,500 seedlings of the pedunculate oak were planted. Higher forest coverage influences the micro climate and provides new habitats for the birds. Autochthonous tree species include willow and poplar. By November 2017, the island has been populated with 5,850 seedlings of pedunculate oak, 1,000 of narrow-leafed ash, 1,755 of European white elm and 800 of black poplar. There are 66 bird species which actually nest on the island, 43 non-migratory and 23 migratory birds. In winter, during the nesting period, there are some 80 species present, while in the migration season, number rises to over 100. Some of the species are pygmy cormorant, black stork, mergansers, seven species of herons, over 40 species of ducks. Altogether, 163 different bird species inhabits the island. The island was the largest colony of the great egret on the entire course of the Danube, maybe the largest one in the Europe. During the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, the herons, for the most part, disappeared. Major attraction on the island is a pair of white-tailed eagles. A nesting couple, they settled on the island in 2010, migrating from the marshland of Pančevački Rit, across the Danube. They built a large nest, in diameter, at the height of . There are five other nesting couples in the wider Belgrade area, and some 90 in the entire Serbia, but having them reproducing at only from the downtown of a city of this size is an exceptional rarity. They reproduced for the first time three years later, in 2013. In April 2016, when their chicks were to be hatched, the city's communal services installed a camera in the nest. The project was unique, with the similar one in Estonia, but Belgrade is the only European capital to have it. Before the next generation of chicks hatched in 2017, live feed was posted online. The largest European eagles, with the wingspan up to , are best observed from the neighboring Ušće and Dorćol districts, but they are being spotted circling above the Kalemegdan and the Republic Square, practically the center of Belgrade.