This tour’s big draw card is the dozens of new families for the first-time visitor, from birds-of-paradise and bowerbirds, to lyrebirds and cassowaries.  We have added Deniliquin for 2008 in an effort to score the scarce Plains Wanderer. The tour starts in the humid tropical forests of northern Queensland and extends all the way down to the rugged coastlines of Tasmania, taking in a large bagful of endemics along the way.

Day 1: Cairns. We start at 3pm at our hotel, and we will spend the rest of the day birding the mangrove boardwalk, Centennial Park, and the Esplanade for a pleasant introduction to the birds of tropical Australia. We spend the night in Cairns.

Day 2: The Great Barrier Reef. Today we take a boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef, where we have the chance to snorkel around Michaelmas Cay, one of the most important tropical seabird breeding areas in Australia. Here we expect to see lots of birds, including Sooty Tern, Black-naped Tern, Black Noddy, Lesser Frigatebird, and Brown Booby. After returning to Cairns, we drive to Cassowary House for the night.

Days 3–5: Cassowary House, Daintree, and the Atherton Tableland. This area boasts some superb birding in lowland tropical rainforest. We’ll spend the first morning searching for Southern Cassowary and other target species, such as Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, Superb Fruit-Dove, Victoria’s Riflebird, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, and Yellow-eyed Cuckoo-Shrike. In the afternoon we drive to the Daintree. The next day we take a boat into some small mangrove-fringed creeks where we'll try to get fantastic looks at Shining Flycatcher, Varied Triller, and Wompoo Pigeon. After the boat trip we head to Julatten, where the birding is easy, and often yields Noisy Pitta and Pied Monarch.

Days 6–7: Mt. Carbine and Lake Eacham. Today we visit the edge of the outback and bird in the grassland savanna. Barely a few miles from the lush rainforests, we shall be surrounded by grassland species such as Great Bowerbird, Red-winged Parrot, Bar-shouldered Dove, Torresian Crow, and Black-faced Woodswallow. We’ll have the following day in the rainforest around Lake Eacham before returning to Cairns.

Days 8–9: Lamington NP. After an early flight to Brisbane, we make a quick stop for some mangrove birding, where we seek Mangrove Honeyeater and Mangrove Gerygone. Then we make our way to O´Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat in the subtropical rainforest and wet Eucalypt forests of Lamington NP. As well as having King Parrots, Crimson Rosellas, and Regent Bowerbirds feeding out of our hands, we can search for Albert’s Lyrebird, Rufous Scrub-bird, Marbled Frogmouth, and Green Catbird.

Days 10–11: Royal NP and Sydney. After a short visit to search for Koala and bird some Eucalypt woodlands, we fly to Sydney. The next day we visit the remarkable Royal NP, an area of unspoiled wilderness on the very edge of the city. Here we bird the temperate forests for that most skilled of mimics, the Superb Lyrebird. In the same area we could find the Origma, the sole endemic of New South Wales. Heathlands in the park also harbor Beautiful Firetail, Southern Emuwren, and the striking New Holland Honeyeater. We continue south to Jambaroo for our second night.

Day 12: Barren Grounds to Leeton. The heathland and subtropical forest around Barren Grounds Nature Reserve is a prime site for many special birds. Some of our targets will be Ground Parrot, Pilotbird, Gang-gang Cockatoo, and White-eared Honeyeater. In the afternoon we drive to Leeton on the western plains of New South Wales for the night.

Day 13: Leeton to Deniliquin. Binya State Forest is an under-birded area with exceptional potential. Here we’ll delight ourselves with Masked and White-browed Woodswallows, and Painted, Singing, White-plumed, and Striped Honeyeaters. There is a very good chance of Splendid Fairywren and Red-capped Robin. In the afternoon we head to Deniliquin for the night, where a night safari should see us come face-to-face with one of Australia’s most wanted birds: the enigmatic Plains-wanderer, a monotypic endemic family.

Day 14: Deniliquin to Leeton. After a morning around Deniliquin searching for beauties such as Superb Parrot, we head back for another night in Leeton. En route we go to an area near Griffith for Bluebonnets and Mulga Parrots, then visit the famous Five Bough Swamp, where we hope for Australian Bitterns cruising over the reeds at dusk, along with Australian Shelducks, Musk Ducks, Red-necked Avocets, Red-kneed Dotterels, and White-fronted Chats.

Day 15: Leeton to Lithgow.
We spend the day birding our way to Lithgow. A wetland site provides our best shot at the endemic Blue-billed and Pink-eared Ducks, while the journey could provide Cockatiel, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos, or an Emu or two.

Day 16: Capertee Valley, Blue Mountains, and Windsor.
We spend dawn in the Capertee Valley around Glen Davis. The target for the day is the endangered and highly localized Regent Honeyeater, which has this area as one of its last strongholds. After a few hours we climb to the top of the Blue Mountains, which, while not very high, are spectacular in their ruggedness. Before flying to Hobart, we have some time to bird around western Sydney, where the many wetlands hold species we may have missed earlier in the trip.

Days 17-18: Tasmania. There is little rest for the keen, and we begin the day in a small but very important reserve near Hobart to look for the highly endangered Forty-spotted Pardalote, along with some other goodies such as Tasmanian Native-hen and Yellow-throated Honeyeater. In the late morning we’ll grab a coffee and Black-faced Comorant, then we head over to Bruny Island for Strong-billed Honeyeater, Pink Robin, Hooded Plover and a crack at Fairy Penguin. We start the next day in the temperate rainforest of Ferntree, where we may see Scrubtit, Crescent Honeyeater, Black Currawong, and maybe a Rose Robin, then shoot up to the top of Mt. Wellington for a few other targets and down to a waterworks for a pair of stunning Scarlet Robins. We’ll spend the afternoon targeting whatever we still need before returning to Hobart.

Day 19: Hobart. The tour ends this morning as we catch our flights back home.

Tour info:

CLIMATE: Warm to a bit cold. Expect some rain in Tassie.

DIFFICULTY: Easy. No long walks, but early starts are required.