Birds Down Under

Written By John Erik

Eastern Spinebill - Kangaroo Island, South Australia

As promised in my previous blog where I covered the trip to Australia this is a follow up focusing on the birds of this magnificent continent.  Three weeks down under only allowed me to scratch the surface of the wonderful bird life in Australia.  As a first-time visitor I pointed my long lens at any bird I could find, keen to register more bird photography to my growing list.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - Palm Cove, Queensland

Laughing Kookaburra - Syndey

Australia has almost 900 species of birds and almost half of these are endemic and are only found on its continent.  For a European many of these birds are rather exotic such as the Cockatoos and others are vaguely familiar but still quite different, such as the Australian Robin or the many wrens (which seem so much more colourful than the European counterparts).

Little Wattlebird - Blue Mountains, New South Wales

Pied Oystercatcher - Palm Cove, Queensland

I managed to catch images of 96 different bird species which is only one-tenth of the total, so there is plenty more to go after.  Further trips down-under may be required as Australia is a rather huge place and one could spend a life-time pursuing its birdlife.

White-throated Treecreeper - Blue Mountains

Willie-wagtail - Kangaroo Island

There were many highlights from the trip.  Seeing a Cassowary – albeit fleetingly (see my previous blog) is one of them. So is observing a Black Butcherbird catching and killing a rather large insect.  The Cockatoo family of birds are all splendid to observe, and although I went hunting for the rare Glossy Black Cockatoo on Kangaroo Island without luck, the sightings of Bang-bang Cockatoos and other species of this family made up for it.  Ditto, listening to the Laughing Kookaburra is something else (it sounds just like my brother-in-law when he giggles 😉).  Neither this nor the Cockatoos are melodious birds – indeed they are somewhat bereft of musical ability.  On the other hand, the beautiful sound of the Australian Western Whistler will stay with me for a while.

A female Scarlet Robin - Kangaroo Island

From Adelaide to Sydney and Cairns I used the opportunity I had to photograph birdlife.  The full list of birds captured is listed below:

  • Australasian Figbird (female)

  • Australasian Swamphen

  • Australian Brushturkey

  • Australian Crake

  • Australian Grebe

  • Australian Ibis

  • Australian King-Parrot

  • Australian Magpie

  • Australian Pelican

  • Australian Raven

  • Australian Shelduck

  • Barred Cuckooshrike

  • Beach Thick-knee

  • Black Butcherbird

  • Black Swan

  • Black-faced Cuckooshrike

  • Bridled Honeyeater

  • Bridled Tern

  • Brown Cuckoo-Dove

  • Brown Thornbill

  • Common Myna

  • Common Starling

  • Crescent Honeyeater

  • Crested Pigeon

  • Crimson Rosella

  • Eastern Spinebill

  • Eastern Whipbird

  • Eastern Yellow Robin

  • Fairy Gerygone

  • Flame Robin

  • Galah

  • Gang-gang Cockatoo

  • Goldfinch

  • Great Cormorant

  • Great Crested Tern

  • Green Oriole

  • Grey Currawong

  • Grey Fantail

  • Grey Shrikethrush

  • Grey Teal

  • Helmeted Friarbird

  • Hoary-headed Grebe

  • House Sparrow

  • Laughing Kookaburra

  • Little Black Cormorant

  • Little Corella

  • Little Friarbird

  • Little Pied Cormorant

  • Little Wattlebird

  • Long-billed Corella

  • Magpie-Lark

  • Maned Duck

  • Masked Lapwing

  • Metallic Starling

  • Mistletoebird (female)

  • Nankeen Night Heron

  • New Holland Honeyeater

  • Noisy Miner

  • Orange-footed Megapode

  • Osprey

  • Pacific Black Duck

  • Pacific Gull

  • Pied Cormorant

  • Pied Currawong

  • Pied Oystercatcher

  • Pied Stilt

  • Rainbow Lorikeet

  • Red Wattlebird

  • Red-browed Firetail

  • Royal Spoonbill

  • Sahul Sunbird

  • Satin Bowerbird

  • Scarlet Robin

  • Shy Heathwren

  • Silver Gull

  • Silvereye

  • Sooty Oystercatcher

  • Southern Cassowary

  • Spangled Drongo

  • Striated Heron

  • Striated Thornbill

  • Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  • Superb Fairywren

  • Superb Lyrebird

  • Torresian Imperial-Pigeon

  • Welcome Swallow

  • Western Whistler

  • White-bellied Sea-Eagle

  • White-breasted Woodswallow

  • White-browed Scrubwren

  • White-faced Heron

  • White-throated Treecreeper

  • Wild Turkey

  • Willie-wagtail

  • Yellow-faced Honeyeater

  • Yellow-throated Scrubwren

A Beach Thick-Knee - Low Isles, Queensland. Another bird with a funny name.

Silvereye - Kangaroo Island

Australia is a paradise for a birder, although compared to somewhere like Costa Rica, with a similar number of species, the huge distances in Australia makes it more challenging to seek out and spot many of the more local species.  It will take many a visit to notch up more on my list … maybe one day 😉

A female Sahul Sunbird building the nest - Daintree National Park, Queensland

Pied Stilt - Sydney

A female Superb Fairywren - Kangaroo Island

A female Scarlet Robin - Kangaroo Island

John Erik
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