*Sometimes the order in which sites are visited may be switched around due to availability issues.

 

Day 1: Arrival and afternoon birding in Cairns (Northeast Queensland).

The tour starts at 2pm in Cairns, set within the heart of the Wet Tropics of Northeast Queensland. Unlike our Eastern Australia tour, which often heads far south on our first afternoon, we will stay right around Cairns (within 30 minute’s drive of the city at most). This will allow for a gentle, chilled afternoon, following our long inward bound journeys in recent days. Cairns is an extremely birdy city, and we are likely to see species like Magpie-lark, Rainbow Lorikeet, Torresian Imperial Pigeon, Willie-wagtail and Australasian Figbird with minimum effort! The parks in Cairns hold an abundance of weird and wonderful birds, such as Bush Thick-knee, Orange-footed Megapode, Australian Brush-Turkey and Black Butcherbird to name just a few. In the evening, we will take dinner at a local gastropub, where for the adventurous, crocodile and kangaroo are on the menu, along with more typical Australian pub fare! Two nights will be spent in Cairns.
 
Day 2: The Birds and Marine Life of the Great Barrier Reef (Northeast Queensland).

If you are worried the long flight in may still be bugging you, worry not, for we have a very tranquil activity for this day to help you cope with that! We will take a boat out to a small sandy island on the Great Barrier Reef. The island is home to thousands of nesting seabirds in this season, and we are sure to get close ups of birds like Brown Booby, Sooty Tern, and Brown Noddy, and have chances at others like Great Frigatebirds and Lesser Crested Tern too during our landfall on this tiny island. After we have finished on the island, we will take a light lunch on board the boat, then visit Hastings Reef for the snorkelers of the group to enjoy. Snorkeling gear is provided on board the boat, and anyone who want to experience the tropical marine life of the Great Barrier Reef can do so at no extra cost; (if you do not wish to snorkel you can relax on the air-conditioned boat). The boat trip typically wraps up around 3:30-4pm, after which we will return to the hotel and wind down before an evening dinner at one of the many diverse restaurants in Cairns.
 
Day 3: Cattana Wetlands & Lake Morris Rainforest (Northeast Queensland).

Just a short drive north of Cairns we will visit the wonderful Cattana Wetlands. The ponds in the reserve hold species like Australian Darter, Green Pygmy-Goose, Magpie-Goose and sometimes Royal Spoonbill, while the paperbark trees are home to Helmeted Friarbirds, Little Bronze-Cuckoos, Olive-backed Sunbirds, and Brown-backed and Yellow Honeyeaters. One of the joys of birding the Cairns region is the myriad sites on offer, and mélange of bird habitats available that are close to one other. After we have finished birding this Tropical Wetland, we will turn our attention to Tropical Lowland Rainforest. While the birding is more challenging than open habitats covered on this tour, Australia offers some of the easiest rainforest birding on the planet, and we will seek star species like Macleay’s Honeyeater, Pied Monarch, and Wompoo Fruit-Dove while we bird a quiet road passing through a pristine example of this habitat on the outskirts of Cairns. In the afternoon, we will make our way along the coast north to Daintree, where we will overnight there or in the nearby town of Mossman. On the drive up we will drop in on a pristine beach to see if it is occupied by a Beach Thick-knee. 
 
Day 4: Daintree River Cruise to the Edge of the Outback (Northeast Queensland).

Once again, this day will illustrate the mosaic of habitats within easy reach of each other in this mega birding area. Our day will start with an early morning river cruise from Daintree village. This passes through lowland rainforest and even mangrove, while by the end of the day we will have arrived on the edge of the Outback, where Open Eucalypt Savanna will be the dominant habitat. This will all have happened while having driven less than 2 hours! Our cruise will search for handsome Shining Flycatchers or cryptic Papuan Frogmouths nesting low over the calm, clear waters, and we will hope for one of the rarer treats on this cruise too, like Black Bittern, Little Kingfisher, or the huge, though unobtrusive, Great-billed Heron. After a few hours on the river we will return to Daintree village and take a substantial sit-down breakfast at a local café. 
 
We will have the entire rest of the day to make it from there the two hours to our hotel for the next two nights in Mareeba. However, there are multiple birding sites on the way to enjoy. In the afternoon, we will have swapped Lowland Tropical Rainforest environs for Open Eucalypt Savanna, a dominant habitat within the Outback of Australia. An afternoon visit to Granite Gorge Nature Park will be made to see the incredibly tame, wild Mareeba Rock-Wallabies, as well as their equally obliging Squatter Pigeons. The property also hosts Great Bowerbirds, and we will check in to see any active bowers at the time of our visit. That evening we will dine at a local gastropub, which has been a big hit with Tropical Birding groups over the years!
 
Day 5: Julatten and Mount Carbine (Northeast Queensland).

This will be another day of extremes in habitats. In the morning, we will venture west to the Julatten area to explore remnants of Monsoon Vine Forest and Subtropical and Montane Rainforest on nearby Mount Lewis, but in the afternoon, we will have switched back to Open Eucalypt Savanna on the edge of the Outback. The morning targets will include species like Bower’s Shrike-Thrush, Chowchilla, Tooth-billed Catbird, and the gorgeous Golden Whistler. However, the afternoon could not be more different, as we seek Australian Bustard in grassy areas of savanna, and visit a wonderful, bird-friendly caravan park, where Blue-winged Kookaburras, Galahs, Pale-headed Rosellas, and Red-winged Parrots can all count themselves as regulars, as well as Tawny Frogmouths, a bold, cryptic nocturnal bird that can often be seen there in broad daylight. A bower or two of the Great Bowerbird, decorated with silver, gray or red items may also be seen there. We will return to Mareeba for a second night, checking for Eastern Gray Kangaroos boxing on the local golf course or Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos coming into roost within the nearby savanna late in the day.
 
Day 6: Mount Hypipamee, Hasties Swamp & Yungaburra (Northeast Queensland).

Today, we will head up to the Atherton Tablelands, where multiple habitats await, again! We will start out in something similar to the morning before, Subtropical and Montane Rainforest, although this time we will be hoping for one of the rarer forest birds of the tour, the gorgeous Golden Bowerbird. We will visit a traditional bower site for this species by walking inside the forest. This species constructs a maypole bower and decorates it with fresh pieces of white lichen. While there, we will also have the chance to see White-throated Treecreeper, Gray-headed Robin, and also visit the impressive crater, a short walk from the parking lot. This is a volcanic pipe, which extends to the water’s surface 58 meters (190ft) below the viewing platform, and a further 85 meters (280ft) below that!
 
Once again, we will be in easy reach of other habitats, as next we will visit Hasties Swamp, a Tropical Wetland closer to the town of Atherton (where we will take lunch in one of the excellent cafes in town). Hasties typically hosts species like Plumed and Wandering Whistling-Ducks, Hardheads, Australasian Swamphens, and Australasian Grebes on the swamp itself, while the surrounding vegetation often holds Sacred Kingfisher, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Red-backed Fairywren, and Chestnut-breasted Munia. Our final stop of the day will be at Peterson’s Creek in Yungaburra, where we will search for Platypus in the late afternoon, which is the optimum time of day for them to become active. That night we will move into some very impressive surroundings indeed and spend the first of two nights in Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges set within verdant montane rainforest close to Lake Eacham.
 
Day 7: Lake Eacham and the Curtain Fig Tree (Northeast Queensland).

Today, we will begin by exploring right outside of our rooms, on the property of the lodge, where Spotted Catbirds and Victoria’s Riflebirds are often doorstep stars! The rest of the day will be flexible, so that we can explore any of the sites we have not been too yet. However, we are sure to include a stop in at Curtain Fig Tree, a very impressive, massive fig tree, which also provides good birding with species like Pied Monarch and Wompoo Fruit-Dove possible there. On this night, or the one before, we will visit the lodge’s viewing platform, where honey sometimes attracts nocturnal visitors like Striped Possum, and Krefft’s Glider. A second night will be spent at Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges.
 
Day 8: Return to Cairns via Etty Bay (Northeast Queensland).

For our final birding day in the Wet Tropics, we will head back to Cairns via Etty Bay, a beach which flanks Lowland Tropical Rainforest that is home to several habituated Southern Cassowaries. Let’s hope they are around for the time of our late afternoon visit. As this is the best time to see the cassowaries, we may not reach Cairns until 6:30-7pm on this night. A single night will be spent at our previous hotel in Cairns.
 
Day 9: Cairns to O’Reilly’s (Southern Queensland).

In the morning we will travel to Brisbane in Southern Queensland via a 2-hour flight from Cairns. If there is time, we will check a local park in Brisbane for Koala, before heading to O’Reilly’s, which we will get to by late afternoon, in readiness to explore the over the next two, full, days. Three nights will be spent at the glorious O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, with good wines on the menu from their own, local vineyard.
 
Day 10-11: O’Reilly’s & Lamington National Park (Southern Queensland).

Unlike all of our other Australian tours, we will have TWO full days to explore the wonderful surrounds of O’Reilly’s and neighboring Lamington National Park. O’Reilly’s is something of an Australian icon when it comes to birds and birding and is well recognized as one of the most productive birding sites in the country. The set of birds it has there are fascinating, and many of them are easy to find without significant effort. The lodge has feeding areas for Regent Bowerbirds, Satin Bowerbirds, Australian King-Parrots, and Crimson Rosellas for starters, and it is not uncommon for other birds to get in on this act, like the barrel-chested Wonga Pigeon, and handsome Red-browed Firetail. Other species, like White-browed and Yellow-throated Scrubwrens, and Eastern Whipbirds can be remarkably tame there too. Aside from these, there is plenty of other avian highlights to look forward to, like Rose Robin, Green Catbird, Albert’s Lyrebird, a masterful mimic, as well as the colorful Noisy Pitta. Early in the morning, or late in the day, cute Red-necked Pademelons, a wallaby that appears like a shrunken kangaroo, can be found right around the cabins. It should also be where we get our first looks at the delightfully abundant Superb Fairywren, which is sure to feature multiple times later on the tour.
 
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