Bird Watching
The
Cairns region is one of the world's premier birdwatching destinations.
A number of factors have played a significant part in reinforcing the
region's already distinguished reputation. These include its safety,
the
presence of an
international airport, the enormous variety of hotels and restaurants
facilities, its range of vehicle hire services, and other support infrastructure, and above all,
its vast array of wildlife habitat resulting in an extraordinarily diverse range of
bird species.
In the
introduction of his bird-watching itineraries, Chris Dahlberg, of Daintree,
comments on this diversity:
"From some of
the world's smallest parrots and kingfishers to the largest of cuckoo's,
to birds that can see in the dark and pigeons more colourful than
Amazonian parrots the Cairns region is central to many of the most
exciting birds in the world. After breeding in the high latitudes of
the Northern Hemisphere shorebirds and waders fly longer distances than
the international traveller to be here in summer.
"In Spring, the quietness of the rainforest can suddenly shatter with the
call of the male Victoria's Riflebird advertising for a mate. The dappling
light of the rainforest is pierced with a flash of red, white and blue - a
Paradise-Kingfisher. The dawn chorus rising from a tiny rainforest creek
is dramatically interrupted by the leonine call of the crocodile bird.
At almost any time one of the 430 bird species can steal the scene. The
daytime eco show is dominated by birds that range in size from the
diminutive endemic Mountain Thornbill to the giant, yet vulnerable,
Southern Cassowary as each carves their niche throughout the Wet Tropics
Area of Queensland.
"There are as many and varied techniques for seeing birds here as the
variety of them. In recent years Australian and international experts
have traversed this region developing field guides, filming world's firsts
and recording their complex calls and songs. A new bird was discovered in
Daintree during 1995, the first perhaps of many new discoveries for the
area, as interest in avian matters increases universally.
"Our small
region has 100 Australian endemic species, 13 of which are endemic to the
wet tropics. Another 50 species on the Australian checklist, can be
seen here and New Guinea making compelling reasons for birdwatchers to
visit the Cairns region.
"Many old world bird families are prolific in Africa and Asia with
representatives that can be found here like; sunbirds, coucals, rollers,
cisticolas, starlings and bee-eaters."
Resident and migratory
wading birds on display at the Cairns Esplanade.
(Article truncated at this point.)
The unabridged version of the "Bird Watching" article on
Cairns-on-a-CD contains approximately
7 pages of
photographs and interesting information.
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