Birds in the Australian Outback! Really? The Australian Outback is one of the largest arid regions in the world. So it is natural to wonder if there are really any birds to be found there 🙂 . Well as it turns out, there are! And how am I so certain?

My family and I had undertaken a camping cum road trip in the Australian Outback for 9 days. Don’t miss reading read all about the sights visited and our experience in my earlier post here. Given my interest in bird watching, I almost always had my binoculars and camera nearby throughout the trip. My eyes, in addition to taking in all the natural beauty around as we went along the trip, was also constantly scanning for birds. And birds I did see! This post is going to cover many of the birds that I managed to see AND photograph.

The road trip through the Outback was for 9 days. The high level route that we took was Alice Springs –> Ormiston Gorge –> Palm Valley –> Kings Canyon –> Yulara –> Alice Springs. The birds that are included in this post are those I saw in any of the places that we visited.

Let me start with a really colourful one; the Zebra Finch.

  • Zebra Finch (M)
  • Zebra Finch (F)

The ones that is said to be iconic and almost found everywhere across Australia are the Australian Magpie and the Magpie-Lark. They can be noisy!

  • Australian Magpie
  • Magpie-Lark

In Raptors, I saw plenty I must say. The most majestic of them has to be the Wedge-tailed Eagle; a really big bird! I saw them a few times scavenging off dead Kangaroo from road-kills near highways.

  • Wedge-tailed Eagle

In Kites, I saw two types; the Black Kite, which was less common, and the Whistling Kite.

  • Black Kite
  • Whistling Kite

In the Falcos genus, the ones that showed up were the Australian Hobby, Australian Kestrel and the Brown Falcon. Though I got to see the Hobby in the wild, I could take a photograph of it only in the bird show in Alice Springs Desert Park.

  • Australian Kestrel
  • Australian Hobby
  • Brown Falcon

The Accipters were represented by the Brown Goshawk. In the Owls, I got to see the Australian Boobook, but only in the bird show in Alice Springs Desert Park.

The Harriers were represented by the Spotted Harrier which I “spotted” when we were in Palm Valley.

  • Spotted Harrier

One of the birds with a fancy hairdo was the Crested Pigeon.

  • Crested Pigeon

A bird that I saw almost every place we visited was the Willie-wagtail. It was fun observing it going around many-a-times fanning its tail.

  • Willie-wagtail

Honeyeaters were seen in many places. The ones I saw included Singing Honeyeater, White-plumed Honeyeater, Grey-headed Honeyeater and the Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater.

  • Singing Honeyeater
  • Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
  • White-plumed Honeyeater
  • Grey-headed Honeyeater

The Yellow-throated Miner had been one of the first birds that welcomed us in Alice Springs; in fact right outside our resort room.

  • Yellow-throated Miner

Alice Springs also gave us my first views of the Australian Rigneck, a bird that I saw on several of the days in the trip, and the Splendid Fairywren.

  • Australian Ringneck
  • Splendid Fairywren

Actually the first bird to welcome us to Alice Springs was the Torresian Crow. Here is one I saw right at the airport 🙂 .

Other close relatives to the Ringneck were the Mulga Parrot and the magnificent Galah.

  • Mulga Parrot
  • Galah

The less common birds that I saw were the Grey-crowned Babbler, Black-faced Cuckooshrike, Mistletoebird, Western Bowerbird and the Weebill.

  • Grey-crowned Babbler
  • Black-faced Cucckoshrike
  • Mistletoebird
  • Western Bowerbird
  • Weebill

A bird that seems to have learned that it can get food close to humans is the Grey Shrikethrush. I saw it in two places close to restaurants.

  • Grey Shrikethrush

I had hoped to see Budgerigars in the wild. I believe it is only found so in Australia. Sadly I did not. Well another time I guess.

At the end of it I was more than pleased with the number of bird species that I had got to see even on the non-birding trip. And my sightings of Australian birds did not end just yet. I got to go out in Sydney, Perth and Pemberton as well 😀 . You can read about them in subsequent posts.