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If bird watching is your brief, Inverawe is the
place to be. Grab the binoculars, slip the field guide into your
pocket and hurry on down for some real bird watching. 84 species
of birds have been spotted
at Inverawe. The 85th is maybe out there, waiting for you!
Inverawe is a
fringe habitat, where forest and
pasture meet the shoreline, the wetlands and the tidal flats.
We've got bush birds, shore birds and birds of the grasslands.
Some are residents, others are visitors.
All 12 endemics - birds that can only be found in
Tasmania - have been seen at Inverawe. One American visitor
said "I've just seen 8 of the
Tasmanian endemics - that's made my visit!" One
bird spotter from the UK said "I've
just seen a Tasmanian Thornbill - my first!" And Nathan, a
young bird watcher, was delighted to be able to photograph a Grey
Fantail
sitting on its nest.
Early morning (9.00 am entry) or late afternoon
are the best times for bird watching. Wear nondescript coloured,
fairly
shapeless clothes, sit quietly on one of our many seats and wait for
the birds to come to you. They're not tame but they're not shy,
either. Ask for a copy of the bird list and our fact sheet on how
to find our birds - that's bird watching made easy.
Bird watching
- In the field
Summer 2008-9 was extremely dry and we noticed a wide variety of birds
coming down to our waterbowls, including normally cautious species like
yellow throats, thorn bills and black heads. We've also noticed
the native hens are ranging over wider areas of the property, probing
up into the bush areas when normally they would stay on the
grasslands. We saw a small flock of silver eyes in late
summer. They haven't visited us in those numbers since we removed
the apple trees, seven years ago.
The Black Cocky, above? They help out by
pruning our Hakeas for us, tip pruning to get at the very hard seed
pods. They also track down borers by resting their heads against
the trunks of Acacias and Casuarinas, listening for the chomp, chomp,
chomp of the borers, hidden under the bark. That's one smart bird!
| TASMANIAN
ENDEMICS |
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Bird
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Habitat
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Forty Spotted Pardalote
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Eucalyptus viminalis woodland. Rare
and difficult to spot. Listen for their ‘whht-whht’ call
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Yellow Throated Honeyeater
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Common in woodland, in the canopy.
Listen for their distinctive ‘plonk’ call
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Black Headed Honeyeater
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Woodlands. Common. Travels in
small groups.
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Strong Billed Honeyeater
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Wet forest. Common but may be difficult to
spot in the tree canopy
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Yellow Wattle Bird
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Forests and parks. Common, distinctive
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Black Currawong
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Wet forests and gullies. Common.
Listen for its loud rolling cry.
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Green Rosella
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Woodlands and parks. Noisy and common
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Native Hen
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Flat grasslands near water. Noisy and
common
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Scrubwren
|
Woodlands. Common. Look for its busy
wren-like manner and ‘ts-ch’ repeated call
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Scrubtit
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Wet forest. Widespread, difficult to
spot
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Tasmanian Thornbill
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Woodland. Reasonably common
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Dusky Robin
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Open woodland. Reasonably common but
difficult to distinguish in the field. Look for its alert, robin-like
stance on a post or pole.
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Lots of birds are at home in the bush at
Inverawe. Some are in the under-story, others are in the tree
canopy, whilst birds of prey cruise the sky above. The birds
marked ** are on the endangered list.
| BUSH BIRDS |
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Yellow Wattlebird
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Grey Goshawk (white phase) **
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Thornbill (brown)
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Small Wattlebird
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Brown Falcon
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Thornbill (Tas)
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New Holland Honeyeater
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Small Falcon
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Grey Fantail
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Crescent Honeyeater
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Collared Sparrowhawk
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Gold Finch
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Blackheaded Honeyeater
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Swamp Harrier
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Spinebill
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Yellow Throated Honeyeater
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Wedge Tailed Eagle **
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Skylark
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Strong Billed Honeyeater
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Peregrine Falcon
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Tree Martin
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Superb Blue Wren
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Black Currawong
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Pipit
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Pallid Cuckoo
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Forest Raven
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Southern Boobook
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Grey Butcher Bird
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Ground Thrush
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Kookaburra
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Striated Pardalote
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Magpie
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Native hen
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Spotted Pardalote
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Black Faced Cuckoo Shrike
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Scrubtit
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40 Spotted Pardalote **
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Silvereye
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Scrubwren
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Flame Robin
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Welcome Swallows
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Bronzewing (Pigeon)
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Scarlet Robin
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Green Rosella
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Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo
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Dusky Robin
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Swift Parrot **
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Pink and Grey Galah
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White
Fronted Chat
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Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
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At low tide many species of birds are seen feeding
on the tidal flats or around the shore line: oyster catchers, ducks,
heron and egret. At high tide the swans and pelicans take over,
with visits from petrels and terns. On the grasslands masked
lapwings are always present whilst swans, ducks and grebes rest on the
lower reaches of the river. Somewhere close at hand are gulls and
cormorants. Swamp harriers patrol the grasslands and swamps,
whilst sea eagles make routine sweeps over the bay. Cape Barron
geese and pacific heron are rare, occasional visitors
| WATER BIRDS |
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Masked Lapwing
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Little Pied Cormorant
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Pelican
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Great Egret
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Great Cormorant
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Hoary Grebe
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Pied Oystercatcher
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Little Black Cormorant
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Cape Barron Goose
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Sea Eagle
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Black Winged Petrel
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Pacific Heron
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Silver Gull
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Crested Tern
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Black Swan
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Dominican Gull
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Sooty Oyster Catcher
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Wood Duck
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Pacific Gull
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Caspian Tern
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Chestnut Teal
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White Faced Heron
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Pacific Black Duck
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