Daintree Birds & Wildlife

Birds

The Daintree Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef region is a world-famous birdwatchers' Paradise with over 430 species having been recorded - this is more than half the species found in Australia.

Varied vegetation on the property ensures regular seasonal visits by a wide range of bird species (with more than 120 having been identified at Daintree Valley Haven). Birders will find that the bungalows provide perfect birdwatching accommodation, each having it's own private verandah overlooking water and many species of old- and new-growth rainforest trees.

There are also numerous tropical fruit trees and nectar-producing flowering plants which attract different bird species including a large variety of Honeyeaters; the wetlands-dam is visited by many water-birds - Black Bitterns, various Egrets and Herons, Spoonbills, Kingfishers and Rainbow Bee-eaters swooping over the water.

June 2010 saw the first sighting of a Southern Cassowary at Daintree Valley Haven, a juvenile about 2 years old!

... what a fabulous location! The wildlife is great - we saw over 30
species of birds before we had to really try! ...
Susan and Lawrence

... flashing Azure Kingfishers, Sunbirds, Gerygones, Pied and
Spectacled Monarchs, Leaden Flycatcher, Catbird, Topknots etc. etc
- 40 species just from our verandah ...
Sharyn and Douglas

GUESTS' GALLERY

We are privileged to present the following images which have kindly been donated by past guests.

Janet Flinn - wildlife artist
Janet sketched this juvenile Bower's Shrike-Thrush from the verandah of her bungalow in July 2008. Visit Janet's website to enjoy some of her magnificent wildlife paintings.

John Gordon
John took these photos at Daintree Valley Haven and in our surrounding valley while on holiday here with Meg in early 2008.

Sebastian Heldt
A previous guest, Sebastian Heldt, kindly sent us these beautiful images.

Butterflies & Moths

Spectacular butterflies are often seen in large numbers fluttering around the flowering native plants. The predominant species are the irridescent blue Ulysses and Australia's largest butterfly, the magnificent Cairns Birdwing but there are numerous other species.

Moths and a myriad other insects abound, especially during the rainy season. You may be lucky enough to spot an enormous Hercules Moth, the largest moth in Australia and, in relation to wingspan, arguably also the world's largest.

Daintree is an Entomologist's paradise!

Frogs

The first rains of the wet season bring on a wonderful 24-hour-a-day "frog symphony" around the dam, and if a giant White-lipped Tree Frog (which can grow up to 140mm) should announce it's presence from inside a drainpipe then earplugs may be required!

Other Wildlife

Other residents of, and visitors to, Daintree Valley Haven include rare visits by Striped Possums, Platypus and Echidnas. Frequently seen are Saw-shelled Turtles in the dam, Spectacled Flying Foxes, Northern Brown Bandicoots and the pretty little Northern Swamp Wallabies are becoming increasingly tame.

And of course the nearby Daintree River is home to the mighty Estuarine Crocodile!

Whatever your field of expertise or interest there are a number of local specialist river- and land-based tour-guides and your hosts, Peter and Daphne, are happy to help with advice and bookings.

Daintree Valley Haven Bird List

The following is a list of birds which have so far been identified at Daintree Valley Haven and guests are invited to add new sightings to the Bird Log:

Baza, Pacific Bee-eater, Rainbow Bittern, Black Boatbill, Yellow-breasted Bronze-Cuckoo, Gould's Brush-turkey, Australian Bush-hen Butcherbird, Black Cassowary, Southern Catbird, Spotted Cicadabird Cockatoo, Sulphur-crested Coot, Eurasian Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Little Pied Coucal, Pheasant Crake, Red-necked Cuckoo, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Oriental Cuckoo-Dove, Brown Cuckoo-shrike, Barred Cuckoo-shrike, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, White-bellied Currawong, Pied Darter, Australian Dollarbird Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, Emerald Drongo, Spangled Duck, Pacific Black Egret, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Intermediate Egret, Little Fairy-wren, Lovely Fairy-wren, Red-backed Falcon, Peregrine Fantail, Grey Fantail, Rufous Fig Parrot, Double-eyed Figbird

Flycatcher, Leaden Flycatcher, Satin Flycatcher, Shining Friarbird, Helmeted Friarbird, Silver-crowned Frogmouth, Papuan Fruit-dove, Superb Fruit-Dove, Wompoo Gerygone, Fairy Goose, Magpie Goshawk, Brown Goshawk, Grey Grassbird, Tawny Grebe, Australasian Hardhead Heron, White-faced Heron, White-necked Honeyeater, Bridled Honeyeater, Dusky Honeyeater, Graceful Honeyeater, Lewin's Honeyeater, Macleay's Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, Yellow-spotted Ibis, Australian White (Sacred) Kingfisher, Azure Kingfisher, Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher, Forest Kingfisher, Little Kite, Black Kite, Brahminy Kite, Whistling Koel, Common Kookaburra, Laughing Lapwing, Masked Lorikeet, Rainbow Lorikeet, Scaly-breasted Magpie-lark Mannikin, Chestnut-breasted Martin, Tree Mistletoebird Monarch, Black-faced

Monarch, Pied Monarch, Spectacled Monarch, White-eared Moorhen, Dusky Night Heron, Nankeen Nightjar, Long-tailed Oriole, Olive-backed Oriole, Yellow Parrot, Australian King Parrot, Double-eyed Parrot-finch, Blue-faced Pelican, Australian Pigeon, Topknot Pygmy-goose, Green Rail, Buff-banded Riflebird, Victoria's Scrub-fowl, Orange-footed Scrubwren, Large-billed Scrubwren, White-browed Shoveller, Australasian Shrike-thrush, Little Shrike-thrush, Rufous Shrike-thrush, Bower's Silvereye Snipe, Latham's Spoonbill, Royal Spoonbill, Yellow-billed Starling, Metallic Stone-curlew, Bush Stork, Black-necked (Jabiru) Sunbird, Yellow-bellied Swallow, Welcome Swamp-hen, Purple Swiftlet, White-rumped Thrush, Russet-tailed Triller, Varied Turtle-dove, Spotted Whistler, Grey Whistling Duck, Wandering Woodswallow, White-breasted

Birding and Nature books

Lloyd Nielsen is a world-renowned ornithologist and is the author of a number of excellent books.