Daintree birds and forest

I was privileged to spend half a day with a bloke who has some of the oldest plants varieties on the planet on his land. Fascinating to see Cyclad that were thousands of years old, massive trees that are still unidentified, and lots of birds.

The highlight, and rarely seen, were male Victoria’s Rifle Birds, both unusually out in the open (albeit very high up in the canopy), starting to lay their territorial claims for when the ladies arrive.

We heard at least five different male Victoria’s Rifle Birds over a few hours.

Very common are the Australian Fig-birds, fairly ubiquitous where there are palms.The male is the brighter one with the red eye patch.

As with the Riflebird and the figbird, this is the first sighting of the Lovely Fairy-wren, the male having the fuller blue face, and the female the white spot at the beak base.

Like many bird and butterfly activities, the local experts are saying that things are happening earlier than is normal. The Ulysses butterfly above is not normally around at this time of year.

Michael Monaghan August 2019