Signature Luxury Travel has rounded up the best tours and destinations for birdwatching in Australia and beyond, several of which are within a stone’s throw of a Luxury Lodge of Australia.
“As twitchers venture further afield in search of rare and exotic species, the resurgence of birdwatching is leaving a noticeable mark on global travel and tourism. Across forests, wetlands and urban oases, more than three million excursions are now made each year purely to see birds, proving that what was once niche is now a global trend. With this in mind, we’ve scoured the globe to bring you the best tours and destinations for birdwatching in Australia and beyond, to get you started on your birding journey.”
Luxury lodges with birdwatching experiences
Luxury Lodges of Australia hosts birdwatching and photography tours at several properties, including those in the Daintree, Kimberley, Lord Howe Island, Bullo River Station, Tasmania, and the Red Centre. Silky Oaks Lodge in Queensland offers full- and half-day birdwatching tours led by Doug Herrington of Birdwatching Tropical Australia, exploring diverse habitats ranging from sandy beaches and mangrove estuaries to rainforests, wetlands, and sclerophyll forests.
Best birdwatching locations in Australia
Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory
Nearest lodge: Bamurru Plains
A vast wilderness of wetlands, billabongs and monsoon forests, Kakadu hosts more than 280 bird species, from the stately jabiru and the dancing brolga to clouds of magpie geese. Birdwatching in these ancient escarpments and tropical microhabitats can turn up treasures such as the white-throated grasswren and radiant gouldian inch. The best sighting conditions are in the dry season, between May and September.
Spotting: Jabiru, brolga, black-necked stork, white-throated grasswren, gouldian finch, magpie goose, whistling kite, kingfisher, azure kingfisher, hooded parrot.
The Kimberley Coast and Ningaloo Coast of Western Australia
Nearest Lodge: Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef, True North
At Broome’s Roebuck Bay, low tide reveals mudflats frequented by thousands of shorebirds migrating from Siberia’s tundra. At the Broome Bird Observatory, birdwatchers can see red-collared lorikeets flash through the air and yellow chats hide among the saltbush. Farther south, the Abrolhos Islands teem with nesting seabirds, while Exmouth’s coastal plains are the domain of the wandering emu.
Spotting: Roebuck Bay: great knot, bar-tailed godwit, eastern curlew, red-necked stint, grey-tailed tattler, whimbrel, terek sandpiper, red-capped plover, eastern reef egret, Australian pelican. Broome Bird Observatory: red-collared lorikeet, great bowerbird, rainbow bee-eater, yellow chat, white-breasted whistler, paperbark flycatcher, brahminy kite, osprey, white-bellied sea eagle, grey-headed honeyeater. Abrolhos Islands: lesser noddy, fairy tern, bridled tern, roseate tern, wedge-tailed shearwater, white-faced storm-petrel, Pacific gull, silver gull, eastern reef egret, osprey.
Daintree Rainforest, Queensland
Nearest Lodge: Silky Oaks Lodge
Ancient rainforest gives way to the sea in the Daintree, which shelters more than half of Australia’s bird species in its emerald depths. Cassowaries stride beneath buttress roots, while kingfishers and riflebirds flit about in the canopy. Reports suggest Mossman Gorge, along the Daintree River or Cape Tribulation offer ornithologists the best perch for birdwatching. Visitors may glimpse rare endemics such as Macleay’s honeyeater or the ethereal lesser sooty owl. The canopy tower and aerial walkway near the interpretive centre also offers ornithophiles a good vantage point.
Spotting: Southern Cassowary, Victoria’s riflebird, pied monarch, buff-breasted paradise-kingfisher, lesser sooty owl, spotted catbird.
Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Nearest lodge: Southern Ocean Lodge
A sanctuary of rugged cliffs and tranquil lagoons, Kangaroo Island is home to more than 260 bird species, many of which are found nowhere else, making it one of Australia’s best locations for birdwatching. The rare glossy black cockatoo, whose last stronghold is here, can be seen among the casuarina groves. From Flinders Chase and Pelican Lagoon to the wetlands and American River, the island’s varied habitats brim with seabirds, raptors and songbirds.
Spotting: Glossy black cockatoo, Southern emu-wren, shy heathwren, Western whipbird, honeyeaters, red wattlebird, striated pardalote, dusky moorhen, pipits, wagtails, firetails, darter.
Bruny Island, Tasmania
Nearest Lodge: On Board Expeditions
At the bottom of Australia, across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, lies Bruny Island, a sanctuary for all twelve of Tasmania’s endemic birds, including the bright green rosella and the rare forty-spotted pardalote. Between November and March, birdwatchers come in search of these island jewels, while conservationists work tirelessly to protect the fragile orange-bellied parrot colonies that breed in Tasmania’s wild south.
Spotting: Swift parrot, forty-spotted pardalote, Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, orange-bellied parrot, shy albatross, little tern.
Lord Howe Island, New South Wales
Nearest lodge: Capella Lodge
Lord Howe Island is a dream for birdwatching. A haven for seabirds and songbirds alike, hundreds of thousands nest here each year, from masked boobies to providence petrels swirling above the cliffs. Amid the palms, the once-endangered Lord Howe Island Woodhen now thrives and is largely unafraid of humans.
Spotting: Providence petrel, Lord Howe Island woodhen, Lord Howe currawong, Lord Howe white-eye, Hudsonian godwit, sanderling, flesh-footed shearwater, red-billed tropicbird, sooty tern, masked booby.
Birdwatching tours in Australia
Far North Queensland Nature Tours
Nearest lodges: Silky Oaks Lodge and Mount Mulligan Lodge
Day-long or multi-day birdwatching tours to areas such as the Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Atherton Tablelands, Julatten and Mount Lewis and Mareeba Savannah.
Exceptional Kangaroo Island
Nearest lodge: Southern Ocean Lodge
Wild About Birds three-day tour and discover more than 250 species of birds while joining marine tours to swim with dolphins, private visits to Australian sea-lion and fur-seal colonies, guided explorations of Flinders Chase National Park and Remarkable Rocks, hidden beaches, and daily elegant al fresco lunches and homemade treats.
Australian Wildlife Journeys
Although there’s no Luxury Lodge of Australia on Christmas Island, guests can join an eight-day, seven-night Christmas Island birdwatching tour with our sister collective Australian Wildlife Journeys to see its world-famous seabird rookery of 80,000 nesting birds, snorkel over pristine coral reefs teeming with tropical fish, and explore the island’s deserted beaches, caves, and unique geological features.
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