Australia: the big five

My personal favourites, highly subjective and only birds included as I did not see a Great White nor a Croc.


A: Albatross
Scanning the ocean upon arrival at Wollongong yielded the first albatrosses, distant but thrilling as I had never seen them before. The next 2 days I joined the outstanding SOSSA-pelagics, and we had great views of Wandering, Antipodean, Northern Royal, Black-browed, Campbell, Shy (&White-capped), Buller's and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross. Birding cannot get better than this!

"Wandering", Shy and Black-browed Albatross off Wollongong.

I never realised how much work there is still to be done in the taxonomy (and ID) of especially the Wandering and Shy-albatross groups. The SOSSA-team is doing excellent work by catching and banding them. Full report later!

Deciding which one to catch.

Not so Shy actually.

   
B: Bowerbirds
It is not their looks, but their engineering, taste of colour and behaviour. They build a bower, decorate it personally and perform strange dances with funny calls to impress the females. Besides these Western and Great Bowerbirds I saw Tooth-billed and Satin.

Western Bowerbird performing at Alice Springs.

Great Bowerbird performing at Mount Molloy.

C: Cassowary
A target bird for every birding visitor and fairly easy to find at Mission Beach. I only had a few hours and started at Lacey's Creek, walked the trail silently and focussed on the sound of a big bird stepping on dead leaves in the forest. Suddenly there it was, just a few meters in front of me on the trail, huge and it was coming my way!

Southern Cassowary blocking the trail

For the first time a bird scared me and I had to retreat, these birds can be dangerous indeed. It slowly followed me for several hundreds of meters before disappearing in the forest. Wow!

beware; stronger than a car!

   
D:
Dingo? Only distant views and not a native species anyway. Rainbow Pitta then! My first real Pitta, beautifull and not difficult to find in the tropical forests around Darwin. The pictures below were taken at Howard's Springs.

E: the Eagle
The Wedge-tailed Eagle of course. Evolution can have strange results on an isolated island and I am not sure why this Aquila acquired a tail like this. But these big ones are very impressive and when soaring their wingtips point high into the sky.

Wedge-tailed Eagle near Alice Springs Desert Park