Cairns birdwatching - Daintree


	19th November - Daintree, The main event: "Daintree river cruise. What a morning! The dense dawn…..more > Take a trip on the Daintree with the Cairns Post >


	Daintree birdwatching app. Available in the Port Douglas & Daintree Discovery Guide App $2.99 from the App stores, suits tablets and phones. Cairns Birdwatching App. Available in the Cairns & Tropical North Queensland App $3.99 from the App stores, suits tablets and phones.


	24 November (Birdwatching time.) "The Daintree at dawn is an awe-inspiring sight…… My birding guide was Chris Dahlberg who pioneered birding cruises along the Daintree. No-one knows the river and its birds better." Sean Dooley, WINGSPAN magazine (March 2010)

Take an early morning walk with Chris Dahlberg at Daintree Village. More...

Daintree birdwatching App's

The link below covers all Daintree accommodation:
daintree.info/accommodation

New at Wonga Beach a beachfront holiday house that can cater for up to 10 at a good price.
beachfront.daintree.info


	DAINTREE RIVER's TOP TEN BIRDS

Just click on the the links on the right to see the birds:

Great-billed Heron

Little Kingfisher

Papuan Frogmouth

Wompoo Fruit-Dove

Double-eyed Fig-Parrot

Little (Goulds) Bronze-Cuckoo

Large-billed Gerygone

Daintree is famous for it's dawn birdwatching tours. An average of 50 species are seen on each trip.
Many of the species you see a lot closer than you thought possible, particularly kingfishers.
The table and comments below gives some good pointers on how to go about seeing those elusive species:

Typical percentage sightings of top ten species by month. [April to January]. Chris Dahlberg's Daintree River tours. (sold 25 Apr 2011)

Species

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

COMMENT

Great-billed Heron

100%

WET

SEASON

RECESS

WET

SEASON

RECESS

71%

100%

40%

35%

29%

33%

22%

35%

20%

Somewhat tidal

Little Kingfisher

50%

47%

50%

60%

65%

29%

52%

4%

0

0

Not seen when breeding, tidal.

Black Bittern

100%

65%

30%

0

0

0

5%

35%

90%

100%

Seasonal.

Papuan Frogmouth

0

47%

50%

90%

74%

90%

67%

91%

90%

80%

Winter, spring & summer

Wompoo Fruit-Dove

17%

6%

8%

40%

17%

29%

71%

35%

25%

20%

Just difficult.

Double-eyed Fig-Parrot

80%

47%

50%

40%

65%

52%

67%

70%

50%

50%

Good prospect.

Little Bronze-Cuckoo

17%

12%

8%

10%

4%

14%

38%

22%

25%

0

Small, difficult.

Large-billed Gerygone

50%

59%

92%

80%

78%

62%

86%

70%

85%

80%

Ideal habitat.

Pacific Baza

0

12%

17%

30%

0

19%

0

9%

0

0

Sparse.

Yellow Oriole

100%

71%

58%

70%

96%

86%

100%

100%

95%

100%

Ventriloquist.

Photographers:

Tony Whitehead, Ryan Shaw, Gwilym Hughes, David Armbrust, Tom Tarrant, Andrew McKay, Alistair McKeough, Martin A. Hansen and Jack Volkers.


	Notes: The above table is typical (except for Great-billed Heron in Jan & May) for any year and shows some distinct and somewhat predictable patterns. Great-billed Herons are difficult but sightings increase when they are breeding. There is a pair nesting this year close-by and it is to be expected sightings will increase for 2010. Sightings have increased. Black Bitterns are seasonal (Oct - Apr). Little Kingfishers are rarely seen in the breeding season (Nov-Dec). Papuan Frogmouths are seen in winter, spring and summer (nesting).

Comments: Lower tides are important 90% of the time. So is weather, season and luck. Our trip is a good way to learn how to find fig-parrots and Little Bronze-Cuckoos and also to open your account with Gerygones. The tide at Daintree Village is 3 hours behind Port Douglas or Cairns tides.

Return to Cairns Birdwatching >

19^thNovember - Daintree, The main event: Daintree river cruise with Chris Dahlberg. What a morning! The dense dawn mist gradually dissolved to reveal a stunningly calm landscape and a wealth of quality bird species. Within the first ten minutes we’d flushed a Black bittern from dense bankside vegetation and had good views of this elusive species. A fly-over Latham’s snipe, Azure kingfisher and Brown-backed honeyeaters added to the moment. Moving slowly up a small side channel, we soon spotted a Papuan frogmouth nest containing an adult and chick. Another nesting species was Shining flycatcher, with the female returning frequently to add more material to the tiny cup in the fork of a branch. The male flycatcher was around too, although he was more elusive. Throughout the trip, Chris gave us excellent commentary on each species and his field ID skills are spot-on. Red-necked crakes were again heard, but not seen. Moving on up the main drag, we soon flushed another Black bittern and got even better views as it perched in a nearby tree. The riparian trees held figbird, Graceful honeyeater, Brown-backed honeyeater, Eastern koel, Metallic starling, Rainbow and Scaly-breasted lorikeets whilst the shores and sandbanks held Black-fronted dotterel, Common sandpiper, Cattle, Great and Little egrets, White-faced heron and Purple gallinule. At one stage, we were stunned to look round and see a monster Great-billed heron powering right over our heads! The bird was far too close for me to get more than one photo.
Next up was another side channel where within two minutes we had a party of ten Double-eyed fig parrots perched in dead trees overhead – Chris said this was the single largest flock he’d ever seen here. The final highlight was a huge, barrel-like Saltwater crocodile floating next to the bank. Overall then, a fantastic morning!
After breakfast, we headed south to Mossman to buy a new pair of bins for Dad, then headed over to Kingfisher Park at Julatten. After paying the AUS$ 5 fee we walked slowly through the grounds listening out for the distinctive call of a special bird... Tristan Norton.

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