Queensland's Amazing Birds

The rainbow lorikeet uses all the crayons in the box. Wowza! Australia's Queensland has a diversity of birds from its beaches to its mountains to its rainforests, even in the midst of winter when I visited. 

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I spent a few days around Mission Beach looking for elusive cassowaries. This was one of the prettiest beaches I've seen.

I set what I considered to be reachable goals when I visited Queensland: photograph fruit bats, koalas, platypus and cassowaries. The last two were worthy challenges. I found platypus after days of searching the Atherton Tablelands. And I spent three days hiking in the rainforests around Mission Beach, following tantalizing clues like this poop pile in search of cassowaries. Notice all the undigested seeds and fruits.

I got extremely lucky when I went out to the edge of town to photograph wallabies in the evening sun and this beautiful cassowary emerged from the thick scrub. It was one of just two cassowaries I saw on my visit and the only one I could photograph.

The encounter was all too short as the bird disappeared into the woods as quickly as he appeared. But I caught this nice portrait. 

The distinctive call of a kookaburra was the soundtrack of every adventure movie I ever watched growing up. And yet they are Australian originals. So when I visited Queensland, I was amazed to see kookaburras sitting in trees. Like ... birds!

Seeing a kookaburra was wild. Like laying eyes on a dragon. I wonder what common American backyard wildlife inspires similar incredulity among our visitors. 

There's something prehistoric about kookaburras. They're kingfishers, which are pretty smart. But kookaburras seem to possess preternatural intelligence. 

Azure kingfisher. 

Figbird.

Pied Monarch.

Victoria's riflebird. This is in the family of birds of paradise. The males put on incredible shows that highlight their neon-yellow mouths.

Sulfur cockatoo. 

Stone curlew.

Koalas were easy to find. I spent a few days on Magnetic Island photographing them. 

I photographed two species of flying fox, tree kangaroos, echidnas, wallabies and pademelon. But the highlight of the trip was finding platypus after days of frustration. I even left the Atherton Tablelands defeated before returning a couple days later to give it one last try.

Dusky moorhen. I visited Queensland in the winter, which probably explains why I saw surprisingly few birds.