Bird watching in Sydney NSW and in Victoria

Minnamurra Falls

South of Sydney in the stunning Jamberoo Valley is the Budderoo National Park. Minnamurra Rainforest is part of this wonderful tropical rainforest and home to a great variety of exciting birds and rare plants. You should be able to hear, and usually see Lyrebirds showing off for females near their mounds at this time of year. Elevated boardwalks showcase this magnificent rainforest with its huge trees and crystal clear streams.

Katandra Reserve & Long Reef

Katandra Reserve was once privately held land now owned by the Lands Department and managed by Friends of Katandra. The reserve is situated on the escarpment of Ingleside is a delight for birdwatchers and plants enthusiasts. In spring you can see kingfishers, cuckoos, nesting raptors, honeyeaters and maybe even a Dollarabird or two.
Long Reef just around the corner is renown for an array of waders from Ruddy Turnstones to Eastern Curlews the gamut of possibilities is very exciting. So wear your slip proof foot wear to walk over the rock platforms to view the selection at low tide.

Ku-ring-gai National Park

Here you will find fast moving honeyeaters like the White-cheeked and the Eastern Spinebill. There are often Varied Sitellas during October and all sorts of surprises down the Chitlern Trail. There are Little Penguins on the Lion Island and Whistling Kites at Patonga.

Eyre Peninsula

Spectacular Coffin Bay estuary with its grand expanse of rambling channels and waterways and amazingly beautiful bay is one prime destination to go bird watching in the region. Here you can watch for Rock Parrots, Ospreys, Hooded Plovers and other heathland and sea coast birds. The most ideal time to visit this area is during the winter when many birds are moving in to the mainland from the islands.

Port Lincoln National Park though remotely located has a mouth-watering reputation in the birding world. Mallee Whipbird, Blue-breasted Fairy-wren, Western Yellow Robin and Purple-gaped Honeyeater means that the habitat is wild, humanless thick mallee with a coastline of quiet coves, sheltered beaches and sheer cliffs.

Arid Lands Botanic Garden, near Port Augusta is a birdwatcher’s delight. From walking trails through the garden you will get to see the Rufous Fieldwren, Chirruping Wedgebill, White-winged Fairy-wren and White-fronted Honeyeater.

At Ceduna you can try for the Scarlet-breasted Parrot and Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters, along the way you can also visit other vast South Australian National Parks. While Coming down this alluring coast; the most eastern of Australia’s Bight you will get to see places like Streaky, Venus and Baird Bays with huge white dunes, wetlands and long surf beaches.

Capertee Valley

Capertee Valley is a good location to find the extremely rare Regent Honeyeaters, Turquoise Parrots and Plum-headed Finches. You will also get to see Gang-gangs, Yellow Thornbills and a pardalote that nests in the old wooden building across the road.
Other birds residing in this area include the Brown Treecreeper, White-browed and Grey-crowned Babbler, the Hooded Robin, Diamond Firetail, Choughs and the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater. With a bit of luck you might even see the Regent Honeyeater, Speckled Warbler and some of the owls. The rich diversity of bird life makes this valley an ideal birding spot in New South Wales.

The soaring sandstone cliffs, eucalypt forests and the woodlands provide a haven for birds. The valley itself is unique and contains some unusual rock formations, one being the truly amazing Pantoneys Crown, a huge mesa at the entrance to the Capertee Valley. Then there are the pagoda rock formations for which the Gardens of Stone National Park is famous.

Warrumbungles

Warrumbungle National Park and the Coonabrabran surrounds have an abundance of wildlife. Here you might get to see the Pale-headed Rosella and maybe even a Mallee Ringneck without having to drive all the way to Timbuktu, and yeah then there are Red-winged Parrots, and Variegated Fairy Wrens too.

The landscape formed by old volcanoes with speccy rock formations in crystaline skies will shatter your big city blues. There are also Dykes and Lava Domes, Plugs and Pyroclastic deposits.

Mallacoota & Gypsy Point

Protecting almost 100 km of pristine coastline, Croajingolong National Park at 86,000 ha contains a rich diversity of habitats – vast tracts of open eucalypt forest, large areas of coastal heath, patches of banksia woodland and pockets of warm temperate rainforest. It is certainly one of the best places to go bird watching in Victoria.

250 species have been identified here – the heathland is home to rare birds like Eastern Bristlebird, Ground Parrot, Southern Emu Wren, Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, Striated Field Wren, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren and Beautiful Firetail.

The massive trees impress and renew the word forest. Thickets of coastal tea-tree are also ancient with swamp paperbark in patches and green damp pasture edging the Genoa River at Gypsy Point.

Other birds living in this birding heaven are Glossy Black-Cockatoos, Black Bittern, Turquoise Parrots, Hooded Plover and Double-banded Plover, Black-faced Cormorant, Spotted Quail-thrush and Robins galore : Easter Yellow, Flame, Scarlet, Rose and Pink.

Barrington Tops

The Antarctic Beech forest with soft tree ferns and ground covers of smaller ferns, mosses and lichens is home to Lyrebirds, Brush Turkeys, Eastern Whipbird, Bowerbird and Olive Whistler. If you have the luck you might even catch a glimpse of a rare Rufous Scrub Bird.

Gloucester Falls is a brief walk through Snow and Mountain Gums, one of the specialties of the Barrington area is the Olive Whistle bird.

Sphagnam moss swamp is an unusual environment that is sliced off by meandering channels of icy water filled with vivid green weeds. Rich in subalpine flora the region is also the home of the fabulous Flame Robin, Peregrine Falcon and Russet-tailed Thrush.

Christmas & Cocos Islands

Christmas & Cocos Islands are not only breathtakingly beautiful these are also steeped in history.

These Islands are remote specks of land some 300 kilometres south of Java and 1400 kilometres NW of Broome. They are a natural historians and birders paradise.

On Christmas Island you will see plenty of Red-footed Boobies, which are kept under constant scrutiny by piratical frigatebirds. Stunning golden White-tailed Tropicbirds glide over the forest canopy with the occasional giant, critically endangered Abbott’s Booby coming into view. Tropical rainforests are alive with Island Thrush, Imperial-Pigeons, Emerald Doves and white-eyes. For any person with an appreciation of island ecology this Island truly is a remarkable place to be.

The annual Red Crab migration is one of the great wildlife spectacles in the world. You have to see it to believe it. Christmas Island is home to over 20 species of land crab (the most bio diverse location in the world for these crustaceans) and includes the Giant Robber Crab, a species that has vanished from 90% of its original habitat. Also there are a bunch of special geckos and skinks and even a couple of bats that have their ranges restricted to this outpost.

Their close proximity to Java has made Christmas & Cocos Islands top locations for finding vagrant birds from Indonesia that have overshot the mark.

North Keeling Island is the star attraction in the region, which is an uninhabited National Park island. Here you can spot The Cocos Buff-banded Rail, the island’s endemic species and other vagrants such as the Saunders Tern and Western Reef Egret.