During Covid lockdown, birds in our backyards have been a source of pleasure and solace. And while we may not need to list every single bird we’ve ever seen, many of us are curious to discover more about our many-splendoured feathered friends.
With more than 900 bird species living or migrating here, Australia is home to almost one in 10 of the world’s unique bird species. As Tim Low explains in his excellent book, Where Song Began: Australia’s Birds and How They Changed the World, parrots, doves and songbirds evolved here and spread around the world.
It won’t come as a surprise that we have some of the world’s loudest birds (cue sulphur-crested cockatoos, galahs et al), but many of us don’t realise that Australia is also home to some of the most intelligent, powerful and long-lived birds which dominate the landscape more than birds on other continents.
Yet there’s growing concern about the survival of many of our bird species. Sean Dooley, public affairs manager of BirdLife Australia, Australia’s major bird conservation organisation, says about 15% have populations that are at risk of extinction.
To quote journalist and author Richard Louv: “We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. And touch. And hear.”
Here are some suggestions to take your birdwatching on the road. Before you head out, two pieces of equipment will transform your experience: a good bird app and a good pair of binoculars, either 8x42 or 10x42. And check out BirdLife Australia, which offers fabulous Australian birding information as well as dedicated bird reserves and observatories.
March and April
Roebuck Bay, Western Australia
The Broome region, in and around Roebuck Bay, is home to more than one-third of Australia’s bird species including 55 shorebird species – nearly a quarter of the world’s total. Roebuck Bay’s tidal mudflats offer some of the richest food sources for migratory shorebirds and large flocks stop over here during their annual migrations.
Visit BirdLife Australia’s Broome bird observatory to see the massing of pre-migratory flocks of threatened bar-tailed godwits, eastern curlews, red and great knots, each with striking breeding plumage, and watch them begin their annual migrations. The observatory also offers guided tours to see white-breasted whistlers and dusky gerygones in the mangroves; luminous yellow chats, brolgas and birds of prey on deserted plains, and on the lakes, ducks, ibis and grebes.
May and June
The wet tropics, Queensland
In May and June, explore the rainforests of the Unesco world heritage-listed wet tropics region, including the Daintree national park, Atherton Tablelands (Crater Lakes Rainforest Cottages) and the lesser-known Mount Lewis national park (at the end of the road from Julatten). Here you’ll see the spectacular mating dances of the jet-black, aqua-breasted Victoria’s riflebirds, the wet tropics’ endemic bird of paradise.
Other highlights include Macleay’s honeyeaters and bridled honeyeaters, pale-yellow robins, wompoo fruit doves and emerald doves, king parrots and rainbow lorikeets. For southern cassowaries, head south to Etty Bay and Mission beach. Del Richards of Fine Feather Tours and Murray Hunt of Daintree Boatman Nature Tours offer guided birdwatching tours.
The Cairns Esplanade also provides excellent viewing of its renowned shorebird habitat on the mudflats, while Michaelmas Cay is home to one of the largest bird colonies (sooty and lesser-crested terns and common noddies) on the Great Barrier Reef. Sea Star offers birdwatching on their Michaelmas Cay cruises.
July and August
Capertee Valley, NSW
This spectacular landscape, framed with sandstone escarpments, is a great winter birding destination – if there’s been sufficient rainfall. This is when box ironbark trees are in flower, which attracts the critically endangered swift parrots and regent honeyeaters. Discover other rare woodland birds including turquoise parrots, rock warblers and plum-headed finches.
Around three hours drive west from Sydney, the area has several good accomodation options that get you close to nature, including a trio of translucent bubble tents; and wilderness cabins and glamping at Turon Gates.
September and October
Kakadu national park and Fogg Dam conservation area, Northern Territory
Explore the wetlands of the Northern Territory during the late dry season when birds congregate in the few remaining billabongs. You’ll see mass aggregations of magpie geese and whistling ducks as well as black-necked storks (jabiru), dancing brolgas, white-bellied sea eagles and comb-crested jacanas (nicknamed Jesus birds) walking on the lily pads.
The free Fogg Dam conservation reserve is an hour’s drive from Darwin (four-wheel-drive vehicles not required) or take one of the Yellow Water Cruises in Kakadu national park.
Kakadu is also home to woodland birds, such as blue-winged kookaburras, partridge pigeons and lots of honeyeaters, while banded fruit-doves and white-throated grasswrens are found nowhere in the world except Kakadu’s gorges and escarpments. Kakadu bird week runs from 25 September to 2 October this year. Luke Patterson from NT Bird Specialists offers a range of birdwatching tours.
Bruny Island, Tasmania
With original vegetation still covering much of the landscape, south Bruny Island has all 12 of Tasmania’s endemic birds including tiny endangered forty-spotted pardalotes as well as green rosellas, pink robins, and yellow-throated honeyeaters.
Spring is a terrific time to visit when birds such as the endangered swift parrot are active and breeding. You’ll also see wedge-tailed eagles, white-bellied sea eagles and grey goshawks. At the Neck, which links south and north Bruny islands, you’ll discover little penguin burrows and shearwater rookeries.
The Bruny Island bird festival runs from 8-10 October. It’s organised by Dr Tonia Cochran who is founder of Inala Nature Tours. She offers birdwatching tours on Bruny Island and beyond and you can stay at her 600ha private conservation reserve with its bird hides and observation platforms.
Birdlife Australia’s Gluepot reserve, South Australia
Part of the Riverland Biosphere reserve on the South Australian-NSW border, the Gluepot reserve is in the centre of the largest block of intact Mallee eucalypt scrub woodlands in Australia.
Spring is a good time to see malleefowl, which build huge nest mounds to incubate their eggs, rare black-eared miners, striated grasswrens, red-lored whistlers, eight varieties of honeyeater, elusive scarlet-chested parrots and, when the sun goes down, spotted nightjars and tawny frogmouths.
En route, spend time in the Murray river wetlands to see lots of waterbirds including rare freckled ducks as well as rails, crakes and regent parrots. Four-wheel-drive vehicles are recommended. Peter Waanders of Bellbird Birding Tours offers guided birdwatching tours.
November and December
Lord Howe Island, NSW
With 18 land bird species, 14 species of seabirds breeding here in tens of thousands, and more than 200 migratory bird species, Lord Howe is a bird lover’s island paradise, made better with the recent eradication of mice and rats.
From the Malabar cliffs, watch hundreds of red-tailed tropicbirds performing their ballet-like, airborne courting rituals (Nov-June) and, from the Little Island Track, observe tame providence petrels, one of the world’s rarest birds, perform aerial courtship displays (March-Nov). Later they return to nest in the southern mountains and can be called out of the air to land at your feet.
Flesh-footed shearwaters crash into the forests at dusk (Sept-May) to scramble down to their nest burrows. Ethereal white terns place their eggs precariously on tree branches around the settlements. Sooty terns hang out on Ned’s beach and flightless endemic Lord Howe Island woodhens, recently saved from extinction, are found all over the island. The Lord Howe Island bird week is from 13-20 November. Ian Hutton offers a range of birding and nature tours.
Lamington national park, Queensland
The world’s largest subtropical rainforest and Australia’s northernmost Antarctic beech temperate rainforest is home to a colourful array of birdlife.
O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat is a birding hotspot with black and yellow regent’s bowerbirds, Albert lyrebirds (famous for their mimicry of other bird calls and even lawnmowers and chainsaws), crimson rosellas, king parrots, green catbirds and superb fairy wrens flitting through the guesthouse grounds.
Seek out brightly coloured noisy pittas and the bowers of satin bowerbirds, littered with blue knickknacks, in the rainforest. O’Reilly’s bird week is 7-14 November. Barry Davies of Gondwana Guides offers guided birdwatching.
January and February
Western treatment plant, Werribee, Victoria
This is not a joke. While crowds mass on Victoria’s beaches, birders come to one of the world’s most environmentally friendly sewage treatment plants, which covers an area the size of Phillip Island. Many of the now-unused lagoons are such great bird habitats that it’s recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
You’ll see endangered brolgas, vast flocks of chestnut teals and pink-eared ducks, noisy and aggressive fairy terns, Victoria’s largest breeding colony of pied cormorants as well as migratory shorebirds like red-kneed dotterels, red-necked avocets and red-necked stints. Permits are required to visit, with new permits being processed in March.
