Birding Tour Australia: Northern Territory – Top End Birding

Our updated Northern Territory – Top End Birding tour travels along a well-trodden path around the Top End of the Northern Territory in a loop starting and ending in the coastal city of Darwin, then moving across to Kakadu National Park (via the excellent Adelaide River, Mary River, and Point Stuart areas), as well as visiting Katherine, Victoria River, and Timber Creek, before returning north to Darwin. The tour focuses on the special and endemic birds of the region and is ideal for anyone who has never birded Australia before, or anyone who has only birded the east or west of the country as lots of exciting new birds will be on offer in this fantastically bird-rich area in the north of Australia.

The exquisite Rainbow Pitta is one of our targets on this trip.

Darwin is one of the top birding cities in the world with numerous key species on offer right within the city and we will venture into botanic gardens, mangroves, beaches, and monsoon forest for a wide range of quality and specialist birds. Highlights possible around the city include Rainbow Pitta, Chestnut Rail, Beach Stone-curlew, White-breasted Whistler, Red-headed Myzomela, Arafura Fantail, Arafura Shrikethrush, Northern Rosella, Red-collared Lorikeet, Varied Lorikeet, Paperbark Flycatcher, Canary White-eye, Green-backed Gerygone, Mangrove Robin, Mangrove Fantail, Torresian Kingfisher, Rufous Owl, and Barking Owl.

The tough-to-see White-breasted Whistler can be found in mangroves around Darwin.

Kakadu is famous for its ancient rock art, but this area also has some of the most incredible wetlands in the whole country and vast mixed flocks of waterfowl can be seen – it really is an impressive sight watching flocks of hundreds of Australasian Swamphens, Magpie Geese, Comb-crested Jacanas, and Pied Herons, with Sarus Crane, Brolga, and Black-necked Stork dotted around among them. Raptors are abundant in the area with top targets including Wedge-tailed Eagle, Red Goshawk, Pacific Baza, and Black-breasted Buzzard. Numerous localized species can be found here too such as Black-banded Fruit Dove, Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon, Partridge Pigeon, Mangrove Golden Whistler, Black-tailed Treecreeper, Sandstone Shrikethrush, Great Bowerbird, Cockatiel, and White-lined Honeyeater to name a few.

The localized White-lined Honeyeater will be a target in the Top End.