We saw a Cassowary and lived to talk about it.

NOT MY PICTURE

My #1 target bird for our Australia trip was the Southern Cassowary. In case you're not familiar with this bird, it's the third largest flightless bird on the planet and lives in the tropical rainforests of northern Australia and New Guinea. They are typically shy, frugivorous birds who are solely responsible for dispersing the seeds of many native fruit trees. This makes them a keystone species in the forests in which they live. Sadly, they have a bit of a bad reputation because they've been known to attack humans with their powerful legs if they are disturbed.

Our cassowary experience started with a rainforest tour of the Daintree Rainforest in northern Queensland - the most ancient rainforest on earth. We spent the day touring different areas of the rainforest, all the while looking out for Southern Cassowaries. Sadly, many cassowaries have been killed by vehicles so there are signs throughout to the area like the one above. The local wildlife managers have gotten into the habit of chasing off cassowaries by smacking them on the bum with plastic pipes. This has made human interaction and sightings less frequent - good for the birds, not so good for the birder.

Our day went well and we saw many beautiful sights, but no cassowaries. On our exit out of the park, our tour leader took a detour on one road and we hit paydirt. A beautiful cassowary was standing in the road. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a photo of it before it disappeared into the forest. It was one of my most memorable birding experiences - seeing such a huge, magnificent bird in the flesh was amazing.

Australian White Ibis Chaos!!!

I was wondering why I hadn't got any post comments. I was accidentally posting them to my test blog site. OOPS! Anyway, the Australian White Ibis is really common in Sydney. If you've ever been to Disney World and have seen the American White Ibises there, it's a very similar situation. They are very used to people and hang out in parks in Sydney eating scraps of garbage and handouts. Beth took this video of a group of Ibises causing chaos at the snack bar in the Royal Botanical Gardens. I thought it was pretty funny.

Pied Currawong

On the fourth day of our Australia honeymoon, we took a train to Blue Mountains National Park north of Sydney. There we took a walk into the rainforest. We saw quite a few birds there including the Pied Currawong, a large crow-like bird that is relatively common in eastern Australia. The name "currawong" comes from their loud, distinctive call. This individual decided to check us out while we were enjoying some pretty terrible sandwiches on a bench along the boardwalk. I think we can name the photo below "The Angry Currawong."

Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree...

The first Laughing Kookaburra that we saw in Oz was actually perched on the balcony of a large apartment building. I noticed it as we were standing around waiting for our Sydney Opera House tour to begin. We encountered them throughout our trip - on telephone wires, in parks, and even at some wineries. This large member of the kingfisher family is as synonymous with Australia as the kangaroo and koala. Well, at least for birders it is. The Laughing Kookaburra's maniacal call is also found in many movies as the quintessential jungle sound. We had the pleasure of hearing them call a few times. Unfortunately, we didn't encounter Australia's other Kookaburra - the Blue-winged Kookaburra. This particular bird was photographed at the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens.

Wompoo Fruit-dove

The Wompoo Fruit-dove, Ptilinopus magnificus (also known as Magnificent Fruit-dove or Purple-breasted Fruit-dove), is the largest of the fruit-doves native to New Guinea and Australia. It's also the first and only Fruit-dove I've ever seen. While on a rainforest trip in Daintree National Park, I spotted this lady sitting on a typical dove nest - a weak-looking pile of sticks. It's a pretty large dove, measuring around 18 inches, with beautiful colors that flow from gray into green into blue and into yellow. This photo, taken in some serious shade, doesn't do it justice. Its feathers are wonderfully irridescent. As I handed my bins to some non-birders on the trip, it illicited audible "wows" out of them. It was truly "gorgeous" as they say in Australia. Here's a crop of the head:

Papuan Frogmouth

About 10 years ago I saw a Tawny Frogmouth at the Bronx Zoo. I thought it was one of the coolest birds I had ever seen. When we decided to go to Australia, I had my heart set on seeing one of the Frogmouth species that lives there. While we were in Port Douglas near the Daintree Rainforest in Northern Queensland, we took a night tour of the rainforest. The tour was awesome and I'll post more about that later. On the downside, we didn't see a Frogmouth or any other nocturnal bird.

When we left Port Douglas, we drove through the mountains back to the city of Cairns. By sheer miracle, we passed by the Kingfisher Bird Lodge and I pulled in. What a cool place! It was very much like the birding lodges I've stayed at in Costa Rica. I met one of the owners and we chatted a bit. He said I could bird there for $5 and that he also knew a spot where a Papuan Frogmouth roosted! He walked Beth and me to the spot pointing out a few other birds to us. Lo and behold, there was the Papuan Frogmouth perched high in a tree. Here's a blurry pic. What an awesome bird!

Video: The Bird Call Lady

We just got back from Australia. Sorry I didn't post more. Internet access was expensive ($25/day!) and free time was minimal. I saw some great birds and we had an awesome time. While I dig out of luggage and wedding stuff, please enjoy this odd little video.

This is "The Bird Call Lady" who has been on Jay Leno and Ellen Degeneres. I came across this while searching unsuccessfully for a recording of an emu. This woman can imitate over 150 bird calls. She does a pretty darn good version of a Red-shouldered Hawk in the video below. A complete list of the calls she can do is on her web site.

Hello from Down Under!

Hi everyone! We're on our honeymoon down in Sydney. The wedding on Friday was great despite a little rain. I'll post some pics when I get back. We've done some leisurely birding while visiting some sites with the best being at the Royal Botanical Gardens adjacent to the Opera House. We encountered several groups of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos including two very tame individuals. We've also seen a few Kookaburras, Rainbow Lorikeets, tons of Australian White Ibises, too many Noisy Miners, and a buttload of Silver Gulls. Today we're visiting the zoo and tomorrow we're heading to the Blue Mountains where we'll see lots more birds.