Australia Birding Tours
Australia has around 360 endemic birds, including some of the most evolutionarily unique species in the world. Our suite of birdwatching tours here are carefully designed so that by covering all routes, participants can expect to see every realistic endemic species and specialty from the intimidating Southern Cassowary to the diminuitive Mallee Emu-wren.
Two flagship itineraries (The Outback and The South) are the first trips that any birder new to the country should be considering. In addition to covering extremely large regions which are remote and somewhat difficult to visit alone, these two tours combined target 70% of Australia's endemic birds (including most of the trickiest desert nomads).
While Ornis is a global company, we are headquatered in Australia and know the continent better than anyone else!
Australia: South-West & Christmas Island
See all the important western arid zone specialties plus the south-west endemics in a simple itinerary which is short enough that we can throw in Christmas Island too!
Australia: The Kimberley & Pilbara
This fantastic wet season birding tour from Darwin in the Northern Territory all the way across the Kimberley to Broome and down into the remote Pilbara provides stunning encounters with all the key endemics at the best time of year for birding in Australia's tropical north.
.jpg)
Australia: The Outback
Birding in some of the remotest parts of outback Queensland, this tour goes from Golden-shouldered Parrot and Red Goshawk in the woodlands Cape York, past Carpentarian Grasswren and Budgerigar in the spinifex savannahs of Mount Isa, all the way to Letter-winged Kite, Grey Grasswren, and Gibberbird of the expansive Channel Country.
.jpg)
.jpg)
The Ornis Birding Strategy in Australia
Modern science now considers the ancient landmass of Gondwana to be the birthplace of passerines, with present-day avifauna like the vocally miraculous Superb Lyrebird and notoriously secretive Rufous Scrubbird very closely linked to these early birds. Our bird quests will take us on tour to the country's most exciting habitats in search of fascinating species, including a few places that even local birders rarely venture!
The South is our best bird tour to see all but one of Australia's endemic bird families, these being Plains-wanderer, Lyrebirds, Whipbirds, Bristlebirds, Pardalotes, Shriketits, and Mudnesters. The outstanding Scrubbird family requires just a couple of extra days in either Sydney or Perth. This particular trip also offers very high chances for encounters with Short-beaked Echidna, Koala, Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat, Red Kangaroo, and Yellow-footed Rock-Wallaby, some of Australia's most evocative mammals.
The Outback is a specialised itinerary covering some of the remotest corners of the continent. Birding across tropical savannah and vast gibber plains, we use roads on which only a handful of vehicles pass by each day. Highlights include six species of grasswren, all the endemics of far nothern Cape York, plus most of the trickiest desert nomads like Letter-winged Kite, Grey Falcon, Inland Dotterel, and Flock Bronzewing.