Bowerbirds of South East Queensland

I had a great time in the South East Queensland Mountain ranges looking for two birds on my “must see” list, the Satin Bowerbird and the Regent Bowerbird.

Bunya Mountains National Park

This was our first stop on our search which is located about 200km north west of Brisbane, QLD Australia, this national park includes much of the Bunya Mountains ranges. You take an extremely steep climb into the park, there are beautiful sweeping views of the valley below and grand tall Bunya Pines rising up above the rainforest canopy; simply breathtaking. When you arrive at the top there is a small residential area and a clearing amongst the rainforest, this was the national park camping area were we set up camp for the night.

On arrival we were soon welcomed by female Satin Bowerbirds, Crimson Rosellas, King Parrots, Bush Turkey’s, White browed Scrubwrens, Superb Fairy-Wrens and many Wallabies, how fantastic to see so many species without even leaving the Campground. It took an hour of observing the Females Satin Bowerbirds to locate the brightly coloured males, even more impressive was to see them display on their bowers. I quickly found 3 bowers within 100m of the camp ground.

The biggest and best bower I found was at the far end of the car park, the bower is located in the far left corner right over the fence. Here is a picture of one male Satin Bowerbird’s pride and joy.

Lamington National Park

We then headed south to find our next target, the stunning Regent Bowerbird. This elusive Bowerbird is at the top of many birding enthusiasts “must see” lists. Lamington National Park lies on the Lamington Plateau of the McPherson Range on the Queensland/New South Wales border about 70 km’s inland from the Gold Coast.

You travel up another very steep and windy road that is mostly one lane, when you finally reach the top it is well worth the journey. The national park campground was spectacular, perched on top of the mountain and right next to the famous O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat. Within 5 minutes of our arrival I saw Satin Bowerbirds, Wonga Pigeons, Crimson Rosellas, King Parrots and even a very small glimpse of a male Regent Bowerbird and an Alberts Lyre Bird.

This Female Satin Bowerbird thought my camera was a great vantage point.

We set up camp and set off to have a look around O’Reillys Rainforst Resort, they were very welcoming to people not staying at the resort which was great. Hoping to get a better view of the Regent Bowerbird we glimpsed earlier we headed for the resort entrance, as we arrived there was an employee of the resort with a bowl of apple; it was feeding time. To my amazement there were 8+ Regent Bowerbirds waiting impatiently for their dinner in the trees surrounding the reception entrance. We were very lucky to see 3 spectacular males in full breeding colours… It was AMAZING!

Here he is!