Lamington

Lamington National Park, May 1998
In my humble opinion, Lamington is one of the best places to bird in Australia. This is a pretty big claim but if you've been there I'm confident that you'll agree with me. We camped in the camp ground near O'Reilly's Lodge. O'Reilly's looked really pleasant but give me a tent any day! The camp ground overlooks a heavily forested valley affording spectacular views, especially at dawn and dusk. It is surrounded by rainforest and many birds frequent the area including Wonga Pigeons, Regent Bowerbirds, Australian Brush-turkey and Topknot Pigeons, Lewin's Honeyeater. The facilities are good as well (nice hot showers - very welcome during the gas shortage in Melbourne!) but there are no cooking facilities. You need to take your own food but excellent meals are also available from the nearby cafe.
Birding: Lamington is justifiably famous as one of the best places to see some highly sought-after species - Albert's Lyrebird, Marbled Frogmouth, Rufous Scrub-bird, Paradise Riflebird, Regent Bowerbird and Russet-tailed Thrush. A number of other really charismatic birds include Noisy Pitta, Eastern Bristlebird, Logrunner, Varied Triller, Grey Goshawk, Sooty Owl, Wonga Pigeon - the list goes on. A diversity of habitats accounts for some of this richness. A great network of trails allows for good birding. During our visit we found the Python Rock Trail, Pensioner's, Blue Pool and Border Tracks to be particularly worthwhile. See the list below but Pensioner's Track was best for Rufous Scrub-bird, Python Rock Trail was excellent for Albert's Lyrebird and Blue Pool Track was the only place we saw Russet-tailed Thrush. We looked High and low without success for Black-breasted Buttonquail in the lantana on the Duck Creek Road. This is a known spot for this species but I haven't heard any reports of it here for a long time. We did see Eastern Bristlebird and a few other interesting things, so it's worth a visit. Don't worry too much about whether you'll see Regent Bowerbird - they are habituated and even feed from the hand, which the tourists love. I far preferred seeing them in the rainforest, not a problem on the Border Track.
While we were up this way we also wanted to see another enigmatic species, the Black-breasted Button-quail. Enlisting Tom Tarrant's help we headed to Yarraman where we found a family group foraging in the scrub and were able to watch them for 20 minutes or so.
Lamington (& surrounding areas) Bird List
Australian Brush-turkey	Alectura lathami	Common, often raid food stashes in the camp ground.
Black-shouldered Kite	Elanus axillaris
Grey Goshawk	Accipiter novaehollandiae	one flew up the road in front of our car on the way to Lamington
Little Eagle	Hieraaetus morphnoides
Brown Falcon	Falco berigora
White-headed Pigeon	Columba leucomela	3~4 seen flying over the forest at the lookout at Python Rock
Brown Cuckoo-Dove	Macropygia phasianella	common in the rainforest
Bar-shouldered Dove	Geopelia humeralis
Wonga Pigeon	Leucosarcia melanoleuca	common, often seen walking across the road or in the camp ground
Wompoo Fruit-Dove	Ptilinopus magnificus	commonly heard, 2~3 seen on the
Topknot Pigeon	Lopholaimus antarcticus	good numbers seen feeding in fruiting trees near the camp ground
Galah	Cacatua roseicapilla
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo	Cacatua galerita
Rainbow Lorikeet	Trichoglossus haematodus
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet	Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus
Musk Lorikeet	Glossopsitta concinna
Little Lorikeet	Glossopsitta pusilla
Crimson Rosella	Platycercus elegans
Pale-headed Rosella	Platycercus adscitus	seen in Canungra
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo	Chrysococcyx basalis
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo	Chrysococcyx lucidus
Channel-billed Cuckoo	Scythrops novaehollandiae	a few birds seen in a large Angophora tree down in Canungra
Pheasant Coucal	Centropus phasianinus
Southern Boobook	Ninox boobook
Sooty Owl	Tyto tenebricosa	1 heard near the Marbled Frogmouth spot
Tawny Frogmouth	Podargus strigoides	2 seen perched near the road on the way down to Canungra
Marbled Frogmouth	Podargus ocellatus	fabulous views of 2 birds, probably male & female, on the road to Canungra in the patch of rainforest below the dry forest
Laughing Kookaburra	Dacelo novaeguineae
Sacred Kingfisher	Todiramphus sanctus
Rainbow Bee-eater	Merops ornatus
Dollarbird	Eurystomus orientalis
Noisy Pitta	Pitta versicolor	pretty common, especially on the Border Track
Albert's Lyrebird	Menura alberti	we found the best place to the Python Rock track, where we saw about 3 birds and heard a couple more, trying to track them down on call seemed to be a waste of time - better to wait for them to come to you especially just before dusk; they can also be heard along the other tracks but we couldn't get looks at them in the dense undergrowth
Rufous Scrub-bird	Atrichornis rufescens	a couple of birds seen very briefly at the fifth creek crossing on the Border Track, listen for the call in thickly vegetated gullies
White-throated Treecreeper	Cormobates leucophaeus
Red-browed Treecreeper	Climacteris erythrops	in the dryer forest on the Python Rock track
Variegated Fairy-wren	Malurus lamberti
Red-backed Fairy-wren	Malurus melanocephalus	Duck Creek Road
Spotted Pardalote	Pardalotus punctatus
Striated Pardalote	Pardalotus striatus
Eastern Bristlebird	Dasyornis brachypterus	a brief glimpse of one in scrub down on the Duck Creek Road
Yellow-throated Scrubwren	Sericornis citreogularis	common in the rainforest
White-browed Scrubwren	Sericornis frontalis
Large-billed Scrubwren	Sericornis magnirostris	common on the Border and Pensioners Tracks
Brown Gerygone	Gerygone mouki	common on the Border and Pensioners Tracks
Brown Thornbill	Acanthiza pusilla
Buff-rumped Thornbill	Acanthiza reguloides
Yellow-rumped Thornbill	Acanthiza chrysorrhoa
Striated Thornbill	Acanthiza lineata
Striped Honeyeater	Plectorhyncha lanceolata
Noisy Friarbird	Philemon corniculatus
Blue-faced Honeyeater	Entomyzon cyanotis
Noisy Miner	Manorina melanocephala
Lewin's Honeyeater	Meliphaga lewinii
Yellow-faced Honeyeater	Lichenostomus chrysops
White-throated Honeyeater	Melithreptus albogularis
Eastern Spinebill	Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
Scarlet Honeyeater	Myzomela sanguinolenta
Rose Robin	Petroica rosea
Pale-yellow Robin	Tregellasia capito	common in the rainforest
Eastern Yellow Robin	Eopsaltria australis
Logrunner	Orthonyx temminckii	pretty common in the rainforest
Golden Whistler	Pachycephala pectoralis
Grey Shrike-thrush	Colluricincla harmonica
Black-faced Monarch	Monarcha melanopsis	common in wet and dry forest
Magpie-lark	Grallina cyanoleuca
Rufous Fantail	Rhipidura rufifrons	very common and tame in the rainforest
Grey Fantail	Rhipidura fuliginosa
Willie Wagtail	Rhipidura leucophrys
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike	Coracina novaehollandiae
Varied Triller	Lalage leucomela
Olive-backed Oriole	Oriolus sagittatus
Figbird	Sphecotheres viridis
Grey Butcherbird	Cracticus torquatus
Pied Butcherbird	Cracticus nigrogularis
Australian Magpie	Gymnorhina tibicen
Pied Currawong	Strepera graculina
Paradise Riflebird	Ptiloris paradiseus	saw a few on the Border Track and Python Rock Track, pretty easily detected from their noisy dismembering of dead trees in search of grubs
Torresian Crow	Corvus orru
Green Catbird	Ailuroedus crassirostris	pretty common on the Border and Python Rock Tracks
Regent Bowerbird	Sericulus chrysocephalus	very common around O'Reilly's (because they feed them!) but can be seen in the rainforest less frequently as well - where they look most stunning
Satin Bowerbird	Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Red-browed Finch	Neochmia temporalis
Welcome Swallow	Hirundo neoxena
Tree Martin	Hirundo nigricans
Fairy Martin	Hirundo ariel
Silvereye	Zosterops lateralis
Bassian Thrush	Zoothera lunulata
Russet-tailed Thrush	Zoothera heinei	we saw 2 birds on the Blue Pool Trackl, I thought they were fairly distinctive and not overly difficult to differentiate from Bassian
Yarraman Bird List
Pacific Baza	Aviceda subcristata	one seen on the way to Yarraman
Black-breasted Button-quail	Turnix melanogaster	a fabulous bird, we saw a group of 4 birds in the dry rainforest at Yarraman (thanks to Tom Tarrant for showing us this site)
Comb-crested Jacana	Irediparra gallinacea	on the way to Yarraman
Black-faced Monarch	Monarcha melanopsis
Fan-tailed Cuckoo	Cacomantis flabelliformis
Double-barred Finch	Taeniopygia bichenovii	a few seen in Tom's garden, not at Yarraman but outside Brisbane