AUSTRALIA: IT’S FOR THE BIRDS (SERIOUSLY!) Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

An emu, as tall as me (5'2" or 1.57 m)

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took these photos in Australia in November-December 2023, springtime Down Under. She wrote this blog post to help our mutual friend Sara Kras dream up her own upcoming trip to Australia.

Laughing Kookaburra (the size of a crow)

In Australia, my husband Bill and I were lucky to see wild koalas and kangaroos, echidnas, wombats, wallabies, and more. We also saw birds, of course. What I hadn’t expected was how they made me feel: not only delighted, but overwhelmed with enchantment.

Like elsewhere on the planet, birds go about their business around towns, urban parks, and farmland. In Australia, many species display bright colors or exquisite pastels, unusual shapes or make funny noises. Australian birds are spectacular!

We visited the states of Victoria, Tasmania, and New South Wales, but most bird sightings, and the best ones, were in Victoria. The photos in this post show only some of the diverse species we encountered. 

Superb fairy-wren (smaller than a sparrow).

The first attraction we visited in Australia was the Healesville Sanctuary, an hour-and-a-half drive from Melbourne, to see koalas, kangaroos, and other wildlife celebrities up close and calibrate our eyeballs to spot them in the wild. But what hypnotized us was a brilliant blue gem on the ground, a wild, tiny, well-named superb fairy-wren.

Australian ibis.

At lunchtime at the sanctuary, a wild Australian ibis startled us when it landed on our picnic table with a loud clunk. Despite the intimidating size of its weapon-grade beak, its attempts at swiping our sandwiches failed.

Masked lapwing (the size of a gull).

From Healesville, we drove to Geelong, the start of the Great Ocean Road along the south coast. On the beach, I gazed endlessly at masked lapwings.

The next morning in Geelong, we visited the Narana Cultural Centre to see Aboriginal artworks indoors, as well as captive, tame wallabies in an outdoor enclosure. Other residents included emus, flightless birds smaller than ostriches. In the photo at the top of this blog post, I caught one snatching a bite of salad after eating breakfast cereal, some of which stuck to its nostrils.

Crested pigeon.

Wild birds that stopped by included incredibly pretty crested pigeons.

Australian king parrot.

From Geelong, we drove west along the Great Ocean Road from one scenic viewpoint to the next and arrived at Kafe Koala in the afternoon. The parking lot welcome committee included “wild” Australian king-parrots. Two of them perched on visitors emerging from the Kafe. The birds never got any food, but the tourists got many selfies. We didn’t get to hear how the king-parrot “makes a loud piercing metallic ‘squeak’ like a forced metal hinge.”

Crimson rosella. (Photo by Bill Hatton)

In the same parking lot, my husband Bill caught one skittish crimson rosella… on camera. Afterwards, we walked up the adjacent dirt road far enough to see five wild koalas!

Galah.

Farther west along the Great Ocean Road, flocks of an exquisite pastel parrot grazed on sidewalk grass: the galah. I couldn’t believe that some consider it a pest.

Purple swamphens.

Purple swamphens wandered near grassy ponds in Melbourne parks and in small towns on the Great Ocean Road. I wondered whether each one goes through life never suspecting that it has a snow white back end. Bird-identification books should show photos taken from behind!

We left the Great Ocean Road at Warrnambool and turned inland, heading north to the vacation town of Halls Gap in the low Grampian Mountains. There we saw dozens and dozens of wild kangaroos, wild emus in pastures and on the golf course, and the only wild kookaburra in almost a month in Australia (see the second photo from the top of this blog post). It never made a sound, unlike the others we’d heard laughing, perhaps because we could not find them. This one, I spotted by stopping every few steps along a trail, for a visual scan of the forest all around me.

Sulphur-crested cockatoo.

Acting like city pigeons, sulphur-crested cockatoos everywhere patrolled sidewalks outside eateries, surrounded us at picnic time, and gathered on trash piles. Online, they star in videos featuring their dance moves. On site, they reminded me that they are wild birds. They have a rich, noisy social life. Flocks treated us to “extremely loud harsh screeches lacking any musical quality whatsoever.”

In the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), an hour-and-a-half drive from Sydney, I watched sulphur-crested cockatoos from a cliff top in the town of Katoomba as they flew home at sundown. They swooped overhead before diving into the vertiginous abyss, to the valley floor below. Down there, they circled and circled above the dense treetops, bright white, slow-swirling dots against the darkening green background, as if the birds were lit up. The beauty and prowess of their flight earned them my respect.

In closing, I’ll mention a bird encounter I’m glad I didn’t miss (the Penguin Parade in Victoria) and one flying animal encounter I wish I hadn’t missed (the fruit bat, or flying fox, flyout in Sydney).

The Penguin Parade in Victoria is where to watch residents of the largest little penguin (the smallest penguin species) colony in the world waddle home from the ocean to their burrows every night. The Activities and Tickets page has excellent videos of the experience to expect with each type of ticket. I’m glad we bought tickets months in advance to make sure they were available, splurged on Underground Viewing tickets to make sure we wouldn’t get wet or exposed to wind in any weather, and arrived extra early to claim a spot at the window. Penguins waddled past in successive groups. Another visitor kept belting out movie tunes to accompany selected penguins along their march, but I stuck my fingers in my ears to keep him from ruining my experience. Taking photos or videos was prohibited. You can also read about Caroline Arnold’s Penguin Parade experience.

The fruit bat flyout in Sydney occurs 20 minutes after sunset, when up to thousands of the largest bat species, known locally as flying foxes, take off from their tree roosts to forage. While walking in the Sydney Central Business District one evening, I stopped to look up at tall buildings catching the last sunrays. That’s when I saw huge bat silhouettes flying along the street at the altitude of several stories—nowhere near my face, thank goodness! You can read about Caroline Arnold’s flying foxes experience. 

On a visit to Australia that delivered on its promise of great wildlife encounters, the birds were a big bonus!

 

For more info:

Australian ibis (Threskiornis Molucca) https://ebird.org/species/ausibi1

Australian king-parrot (Alisterus scapularis) https://ebird.org/species/aukpar1/

Crested pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) https://ebird.org/species/crepig1/

Crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) https://ebird.org/species/criros2/

Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) https://ebird.org/species/emu1/

Galah (Eolophus roseicapilla) https://ebird.org/species/galah/

Laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) https://ebird.org/species/laukoo1/

Masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) https://ebird.org/species/maslap1/

Purple swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/purple-swamphen/

Superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/superb-fairy-wren/ 

Sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) https://ebird.org/species/succoc/

 All the birds listed above are native only to Australia, except for the masked lapwing which is also found in New Zealand.