The Wet Tropics is home to nearly half of Australia's birds, harbouring more than 370 bird species within the region.
In total there are:
- at least 137 species of closed forest dependent (rainforest and mangrove) birds in the Wet Tropics
-
23 bird species are either endemic to the region or are largely confined to the Wet Tropics region
-
13 species are known to be strictly endemic to the Wet Tropics and 9 of them are from the uplands with the other 4 ranging down to lower altitudes.
Endemic birds of the Wet Tropics
The upland endemic birds are:
-
Tooth-billed bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris)
-
Golden bowerbird (Prionodura newtoniana)
-
Bridled honeyeater (Lichenostomus frenatus)
-
Fern wren (Oreoscopus gutturalis)
-
Atherton scrubwren (Sericornis keri)
-
Mountain thornbill (Acanthiza katherina)
-
Grey-headed robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons)
-
Northern logrunner (chowchilla) (Orthonyx spaldingii)
-
Bower's shrike-thrush (Colluricincla boweri)
The other four endemic birds are:
-
Lesser sooty owl (Tyto multipunctata)
-
Macleay's honeyeater (Xanthotis macleayana)
-
Victoria's riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae)
-
Pied monarch (Arses kaupi)
Sub-species restricted to the Wet Tropics
There are another ten birds with subspecies restricted to the Wet Tropics. They are:
-
Australian king parrot (Alisterus scapularis minor)
-
Double-eyed fig parrot (Cyclopsitta diophthalma macleayana)
-
Pale-yellow robin (Tregellasia capito nana)
-
Yellow-breasted boatbill (Machaerirhynchus flaviventer secundus)
-
Grey fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa frerei)
-
Eastern whipbird (Psophodes olivaceus lateralis)
-
Brown gerygone (Gerygone mouki mouki)
-
Spotted catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis maculosus)
-
Satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus minor)
-
Boobook owl (Ninox novaeseelandiae lurida)
More information
You can find out more about Wet Tropics birds in here:
Birdwatching is a very popular activity in Australia and there are some large community organisations involved in counts, education, surveys and scientific research as well as regional and local branches that organise trips. A useful website is Birdlife Australia.
You can download a list of bird species for the Wet Tropics bioregion sourced from the Queensland Government's WildNet database.
