Hints & Tips for Birding in and Around Brisbane
Queensland offers incredible birdwatching, with many species unique to Australia. During ICCB, explore nearby hotspots on your own or join daily morning bird walks (Tuesday-Thursday) at 6:30 AM from the Goodwill Bridge. Sign up early—spots are limited!
Prepared by Hugh Possingham
Clockwise from top: a Bush-stone curlew, a Crimson rosella and an Australian Brush Turkey.
Queensland is Australia’s most biodiverse state and Australia is second, only to Indonesia, for endemic bird diversity globally. Australia is especially rich in endemic bird families – we have been wandering the southern hemisphere alone since Gondwanaland broke up! Most of the terrestrial birds you will see are not related to birds in other continents.
Below are some tips for birdwatching during your time in Brisbane for ICCB.
For Brisbane City Council area (which contains almost 1 million people) there is a specific guide for birding locations.
Similar guides are available for nearby council areas.
The closest park to the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (conference venue) is a short walk across the Brisbane River – the City Botanic Gardens (click here for a bird list). On the walk across the river look for Tree Martins and Welcome Swallows, the three species of terns that regularly fly up and down the river, Striated Heron and Darter, and maybe even a White-bellied Sea-eagle.
Group Bird Walk: Join Us!
The conference is offering daily morning bird walks to the City Botanic Gardens on Tuesday (June 17th), Wednesday (June 18th) and Thursday (June 19th). We will meet at the west end of the Goodwill bridge (South Bank) at 6:30 AM. Sign-up here. There is a limit of 30 spots per day.
There are some large and spectacular birds in the middle of the city, including a megapode that annoys people, the Australian Brush-turkey (not a turkey, incubating its eggs in a mound), Bush Stone-curlews (crepuscular with an eerie night call), ten species of parrot and cockatoo, and an ibis that some people think of as a pest.
Birdwatching ‘Hotspots’ Within 20 Minutes Drive of Central Brisbane:
Click the links below to access a bird list for the site -
Sandy Camp Wetlands: good bush birds, crakes, and other waterbirds
Lytton Wader Roost and Wynnum Mangrove Boardwalk: mangrove species and waterbirds
Oxley Creek Common: my favourite (70 species in 3 hours is normal)
Archerfield Wetlands: also the site of our ICCB tree planting initiative (make a long lasting contribution to the biodiversity of the city you will be visiting! Click here to learn more!); flat easy walk
Gold Creek Reservoir: some eucalypt and rainforest birds, a good 4 hour walk, not flat, if you bird the entire lake
For some of the region’s unique rainforest species go to Mount Glorious (D'Aguilar National Park / Maiala).
Further afield there is Springbrook and Lamington National Park where you can find Albert’s Lyrebird or Rufous Scrubbird, ancient endemic families.
Going west from Brisbane in the winter can be a good idea. The bird community starts to change as you pass Toowoomba and cross the Great Diving Range.
For specific hopes and dreams, email me or send me a WhatsApp +61 434 079 061.
PS – in Brisbane City if you see a reptile, it will probably be an eastern water dragon or a carpet python. If you see a native mammal, it will probably be a brush-tailed or ring-tailed possum, or a little black flying fox (very big bat).