The Ultimate Birding Tour! Adelaide - Melbourne - Hobart. 300+ species!
This exciting new tour has been specifically designed to concentrate on the many specialties of the southern coastal region of Australia and the South Australian outback.
You can choose to do only the first six days of this tour (in which case you'll join our SA Highlights tour), or the second six days through Victoria and Tasmania, or of course the entire 12-day tour. Read the tour brochure for more details.
The tour will begin in the elegant city of Adelaide from where it is less than a day’s drive to the outback, where sandy and stony deserts are traversed by mostly dry watercourses. Along the Strzelecki Track we search for Cinnamon Quail-thrush, Thick-billed Grasswren and the very rare Chestnut-breasted Whiteface. From here we pass through the Flinders Ranges, where rugged escarpments rise dramatically out of the wide open plains, and deep gorges and watercourses lined with tall river red gums provide rich birdlife. Here we search the spinifex-grass covered slopes for the recently split Short-tailed Grasswren.
Heading further south we venture into the semi-arid ‘Mallee’ eucalypt scrubland, within which Birds Australia’s splendid Gluepot reserve is located. Here we aim to find Malleefowl, Striated Grasswren, the endangered Black-eared Miner, Chestnut Quail-thrush, Southern Scrub-robin, Striped Honeyeater and the very rare Red-lored Whistler.
Australia’s largest river, the Murray, will provide us with plenty of excitement with Freckled Duck, Yellow Rosella and Regent Parrot. We then leave South Australia behind us and search for the beautiful yet elusive Mallee Emu-wren. Further east, in the wide -open grasslands of northern Victoria we spotlight the endemic and very rare Plains-wanderer during the evening. The dry eucalypt woodland nearby is home to Grey-crowned Babbler and Speckled Warbler.
We take the spectacular coastal route to Melbourne, along the way picking up, with a bit of luck, Rufous Bristlebird, Gang-gang Cockatoo and Koala. Near Melbourne we visit the tall, wet sclerophyll hill forests of the Dandenong Ranges, home to Superb Lyrebird, Powerful Owl and many other forest birds.
We then fly to Tasmania where we bird ancient mountain forests on Bruny Island for endemics ranging from Green Rosella, Strong-billed Honeyeater, Forty-spotted Pardalote and Black Currawong while in the evening we spotlight for Little Penguins coming ashore. An optional 1-day extension is available where a scenic flight over seemingly endless wilderness takes you to the breeding grounds of one of the worlds rarest birds, the Orange-bellied Parrot.
This itinerary provides a perfect balance between maximising the species count (expect around 300 including Tasmania) and the number of days we will be on the road.
Summary  Download tour brochure
• Australia’s greatest river: the Murray river
• Birds Australia’s Gluepot Reserve
• Outback mountains in the Flinders Ranges, and nearby deserts
• Spectacular coastal scenery along the Great Ocean Road
• Pristine wilderness of Tasmania
Featured Birds
• Malleefowl, Musk Duck, Freckled Duck
• Plains Wanderer, Superb Lyrebird
• Gilberts, Rufous, Olive and Red-lored Whistler
• Rufous Bristlebird, Black-eared Miner
• Spotted, Striated and Forty-spotted Pardalote
• Chestnut-breasted Whiteface
• Striated, Short-tailed and Thick-billed Grasswren, Mallee Emu-wren
• Chestnut and Cinnamon Quail-Thrush
• Tasmanian endemics including Forty-spotted pardalote, Scrubtit, Tasmanian Scrubwren
• 8 species of Parrot including Elegant, Blue-winged, Swift, Orange-bellied and Regent Parrot
• 15 species of Honeyeater incuding Tawny-crowned, Strong-billed and Black-headed
• 7 species of Robin including Hooded, Red-capped, Scarlet, Pink and Dusky Robin
• Expect around 300 species, 68 families, for the entire tour
Inclusions Download tour brochure
• All meals
• Accommodation (double or twin-share room)
• Transport using comfortable minibus or 4WD depending on the season
• Expert Guiding
• Entry fees
• Domestic flight Melbourne - Hobart one-way
Exclusions
• Pre- & post trip flights and accommodation
• Breakfast on first day, optional extension
• Drinks
• Personal expenses eg. phone calls, souvenirs, tips
Optional extension:
• 1-day Melaleuca flight, breeding grounds of Orange-bellied Parrot $400 pp.
Scheduled tour dates: Download tour brochure
• Departure from Adelaide, South Australia on Tuesday, 20 November 2012.
• Interested but these dates don't suit?
Leader:
• Peter Waanders and local guide(s). Group size: Maximum 8 participants.
Cost for tour:
• from $4999 AUD per person, based on double or twin-share occupancy. Single occupancy attracts a surcharge. An earlybird discount of $100 is available for bookings received 6 months or more in advance.
Download tour brochure
1st row: orange-bellied parrot, tawny frogmouth, yellow-tailed black cockatoo, pink cockatoo, gibber chat, tasmanian native-hen
2nd row: black falcon, common wombat, rufous bristlebird, purple-gaped honeyeater, white-breasted woodswallow, western grey kangaroo
3rd row: glossy ibis, malleefowl, rainbow lorikeet, plains-wanderer, green rosella
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