Alice Springs Birding (birdwatching) and Wildlife Guide

Central Australia Birding Guide

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Local specialties:

Banded Whiteface
Black Honeyeater
Cinnamon Quail-thrush
Dusky Grasswren
Grey Honeyeater
Grey-headed Honeyeater
Painted Finch
Pied Honeyeater
Red-browed Pardalote
Redthroat
Rufous-crowned Emu-wren
Slaty-backed Thornbill
Spinifex Pigeon
Spinifexbird
Striated Grasswren (race striatus)
White-fronted Honeyeater

Videos

No Parrots, but desert springs

by Andrew Stafford (sponsored by Swarovski)

I COULD go to Australia’s so-called Red Centre another 10 times in my life, and never see a drop of rain. So to visit it for four full days and not have a single one of blue sky was in some ways a little sad – it certainly wasn’t always ideal for birding – but in others, an experience to be cherished.

Desert oaks and flowering acacias, reinvigorated by passing rain showers, inject a mix of vibrant colours, textures and scent into the red desert. Photo by Simon Mustoe.

Midnight Oil once said “The western desert lives and breathes in 45 degrees”. For mine, it’s closer to the mark to say it only really ekes out an existence in those kinds of conditions; after the rain has tumbled down, though, it positively seethes with life. I’ve never been much for botany, but I have never seen a wildflower display like it. Nor have I seen the grasses so dense and green, or the Spinifex carrying such heavy seed.

We were, of course, looking for Princess Parrots. It’s hard to think of a single avian event in the past 10 years that has caused such feverish excitement&hellip Read more