Cape York Birdwatching Safari: Cairns to Iron Range

An early start out of Cairns heads north onto Cape York Peninsula through a vast spread of tropical woodland. It is a long drive, broken up with regular stops to stretch your legs, take in the views, pull over for any priority birds along the roadside, and have a picnic lunch on the way. In the afternoon, the group reaches Artemis Station, a cattle property in the Shephard family since 1911 and one of the last strongholds of the endangered golden-shouldered parrot. The parrot nests in termite mounds, digging a chamber into the mound, and you’ll spend the time here watching the open woodland for pairs.

Overnight: Fairview Station. Meals: L/D.

Depending on the previous afternoon’s luck, the morning may start with another visit to Artemis Station before the group heads into Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park. At around 544,000 ha, this is Queensland’s second-largest national park, a patchwork of tropical woodland, riverside forest, lagoons and grassy plains studded with termite mounds. The birding is rich and varied: pale-headed rosella, red-winged parrot, red goshawk, black-backed butcherbird, yellow-tinted honeyeater, red-browed pardalote, northern fantail, great bowerbird and lemon-bellied flycatcher, waterbirds on the lagoons, and star, crimson, masked and black-throated finches. Agile wallaby, northern nail-tail wallaby, antilopine wallaroo and little red flying-fox are all possible. At dusk, the group waits out the light for large-tailed and spotted nightjars.

Overnight: Musgrave Roadhouse. Meals: B/L/D.

After early birding around Lakefield and Musgrave, the group continues north on the Peninsula Developmental Road and stops for lunch at Archer River Roadhouse. The road then climbs through the northern end of the Great Dividing Range at Tozer’s Gap, with long views over the ranges, heathland and forest. This is the place for the white-streaked honeyeater, the second of Cape York’s two endemic birds, and for carnivorous tropical pitcher plants growing in the heath. A short drive further on, the group fords the West Claudie River and checks in at The Greenhoose, on the edge of Kutini-Payamu (Iron Range) National Park. There is time for a first walk in the lodge’s gardens and private rainforest, where the local specials often turn up before you have unpacked.

Overnight: The Greenhoose. Meals: B/L/D.

The first of three full days in the park. Kutini-Payamu holds a mosaic of habitats close together: lowland rainforest, tall gallery forest along the creeks, tropical woodland, heath on the rocky ridges, mangroves and palm-fringed beaches looking out over the Coral Sea. At the top of the list are palm cockatoo, eclectus parrot and two birds-of-paradise, the magnificent riflebird and trumpet manucode. Two restricted-range bowerbirds also live here: the fawn-breasted bowerbird and black-eared catbird. Other northern Cape York specials the group will look for include spotted whistling-duck, red-cheeked parrot, yellow-billed kingfisher, chestnut-breasted cuckoo, frill-necked monarch, white-faced robin, northern scrub-robin, yellow-legged flyrobin, tropical scrubwren, and green-backed, tawny-breasted and white-streaked honeyeaters.

Overnight: The Greenhoose. Meals: B/L/D.

The day works through the park’s key sites, including Gordon Creek, West Claudie River, the Old Coen Track and Cook’s Hut campground. Birds with a wider Australian range are often easier to see here than anywhere else, among them wompoo, superb and rose-crowned fruit-doves, noisy pitta, white-eared monarch, grey whistler and yellow-breasted boatbill, alongside the Cape York subspecies of double-eyed fig-parrot, Australian brush-turkey, little bronze-cuckoo and red-browed finch. After dark, the night walk searches for Papuan and marbled frogmouths, large-tailed and white-throated nightjars and sometimes rufous and masked owls. Mammals may include common spotted cuscus, southern common cuscus, striped possum, Krefft’s glider, Cape York melomys, northern brown bandicoot and bare-backed fruit bat and green tree python and scrub python are both possible.

Overnight: The Greenhoose. Meals: B/L/D.

Alongside more rainforest birding, the day takes in the mangroves and beaches around Portland Roads and Chilli Beach. The beaches and rocks are feeding and roosting spots for waders and terns, and the fruiting palms and beach almond trees behind the sand are worth scanning slowly for palm cockatoos feeding quietly. Time is kept free for any species still missing from the list, with the guide choosing sites based on the week’s sightings.

Overnight: The Greenhoose. Meals: B/L/D.

Enjoy a final morning of birding around The Greenhoose before breakfast and check-out, then say farewell to your guide and Cape York as you board your flight from Lockhart River back to Cairns.

Meals: B.