6 Days / 5 Nights
Cairns & Atherton Tablelands Tour
Exploring Cairns and the Southern Atherton Tablelands targeting North Queenslands incredible local specalties and endemics.
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Cairns & Atherton Tablelands Tour
OUR OVERVIEW
Birding and photography across Cairns and the Tablelands.
This tour explores Cairns city birding sites, the famous Cairns Esplanade, mangroves, rainforest habitats and the Southern Tablelands, with opportunities for shorebirds, Wet Tropics endemics, Southern Cassowary and rainforest wildlife.
- Cairns Esplanade and mangrove birding
- Southern Cassowary around Etty Bay
- Lake Eacham, Yungaburra and Atherton Tablelands
- Wet Tropics endemic birds and rainforest mammals
Tour itinerary
Cairns & Atherton Tablelands itinerary
A 6 day / 5 night birding and photography tour beginning and ending in Cairns, Travel from Cairns to the Atherton Tablelands to target the local endemics like GOlden Bowerbird, Bowers Shrike-thrush, Chowchilla and of course Southern Cassowary.
Cairns, Queensland
Pick up from Cairns airport or your accommodation before exploring around Cairns itself.
Cairns and Surrounds
A full day around Cairns itself, sites include the famous Cairns Esplanade which is a fantastic place for shorebirds including Terek Sandpiper, Red-capped Plover, Australian Pelican, Grey-tailed Tattler, Greater & Lesser Sandplover, Red-necked Stint, Black-tailed & Bar-tailed Godwits, Gull-billed Tern, Little Tern, Caspian Tern and if we’re lucky a Beach-stone Curlew. Just North of town is Centenary Lakes where we find fresh and saltwater lakes, here we might see Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Australian Brush-Turkey, Cicadabird, Dusky Myzomela, Brown-backed Honeyeater, Yellow Honeyeaters, Large-billed Gerygone, Black Butcherbird, Magpie Goose, Little Kingfisher, Nankeen Night-heron, Radjah Shelduck, Metallic Starling, Double-eyed Fig-parrot, Green Oriole maybe a day roosting Papuan Frogmouth.
Cairns to Yungaburra
Today our main target will be Southern Cassowary, we will be getting up early and heading South to Etty Bay where they are sometimes found walking around in the open and maybe even on the beach making for great photo opportunities. After a morning at Etty Bay we will then make our way up the mountain onto the Atherton Tablelands and our accommodation for the next three nights.
Southern Atherton Tablelands
For the next three days we will spend time exploring the Southern Tablelands, sites include the two stunning Crater Lakes of Barrine and Eacham which are great for the local rainforest birds, Mount Hypippamee National Park holding some of the local high elevation rainforest birds, Hasties Swamp famous for its ducks and water birds and the huge Curtain Fig Tree which is great for birds like Grey-headed Robin, Pied Monarch and Victoria’s Riflebird. Mammals we will be looking for include some of Australia’s most iconic mammals like Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo and Platypus. An optional night out spotlighting could find us a huge list of possible mammals, these include Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo, Coppery Brush-tailed Possum, Ring-tailed Possum, Herbert River Ringtail Possum, Lemuroid Ringtail Possum, Green Ringtail Possum, Giant White-tailed Rat, Musky Rat-kangaroo, Northern Brown Bandicoot, Sugar Glider, Feather-tailed Glider and the northern race of Yellow-bellied Glider.
Yungaburra to Cairns
Today we spend the morning following up any species we need to follow up, this could lead us to the dry habitat around Mareeba or continue targeting the rainforest birds. Lunch will be had a one of the Tablelands great cafes before making out way back down to Cairns where I can drop you at your accommodation or airport depending on your plans.
Cairns, Queensland.
The tour finishes in Cairns.
Cairns, Yungaburra
Accommodation includes Novotel, Cairns and Village HQ, Yungaburra.
$14990.00
All inclusive for one or two people in twin or double accommodation. Larger groups can contact me for pricing and numbers.
Target birds
Birds to look for on this tour
Little Kingfisher, Golden Bowerbird, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Pied Monarch, Southern Cassowary, Spotted Catbird, Bridled Honeyeater, Macleay's Honeyeater, Atherton Scrub-wren, Fernwren, Bower's Shrike-thrush, Victoria’s Riflebird, Red-necked Crake, Chowchilla, Grey-headed Robin, Tooth-billed Bowerbird, Wompoo Fruit-dove, Superb Fruit-dove, Rose-crowned Fruit-dove, Mangrove Robin and Torresian Kingfisher.
The exact bird list depends on season, weather, road access, flowering conditions and current bird activity.
