Limosa - Birdwatching and Wildlife Hoildays Worldwide

Australia is truly a world apart. Separated from the rest of the world's land masses for over 60 million years, here evolution has taken a quite separate path. Most famous perhaps are the continent’s two mammal groups: the marsupials and the monotremes. But even more remarkable, almost half of Australia’s 650 or so regular bird species are found only here and nowhere else - a greater proportion of endemics than any other country.

Our tour to Western Australia focuses on the stunningly diverse southwestern corner of this huge island continent, a region blessed with a splendid array of endemic birds and some of the finest floral displays to be seen anywhere in the world. We start in Perth, at beautiful King’s Park, overlooking the broad reaches of the Swan River. Here we will encounter our first endemic, the raucous Short-billed Black Cockatoo, and shrieking Australian Ringnecks, before a relaxing Indian Ocean cruise carries us to Rottnest Island, home of that dainty marsupial, the Quokka, and alive with the calls of Western Gerygones and Singing Honeyeaters.

Entering the temperate eucalypt forests of the Darling Ranges, we will watch for Western Rosella and the brilliantly coloured Red-capped Parrot. As we continue to the arid woodlands of the Goldfields, we will be captivated by the carpets of Everlasting Daisies and a myriad other nectar-filled wildflowers that attract Black, White-fronted and Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters as well as Red-backed Kingfisher, Striated Pardalote and the eye-catching Crimson Chat.

Along the rugged south coast, we’ll explore the islands of the Recherche Archipelago for an array of seabirds and whales, experience the fantastic botanical diversity that draws Western Spinebill and Little Wattlebird to the Stirling Ranges, and stalk the rare Noisy Scrub-bird and Western Bristlebird - two of the hardest of all Australian birds to see! We’ll watch Long-billed Black Cockatoos and Western Corellas screeching over the wetlands of Lake Muir, take a trip over the largest sand dunes in Australia to find Fairy Tern, and walk amid the tall karri forests for Red-winged Fairy-wrens and Red-eared Firetails.

Returning to Perth via the scenic woodlands of Dryandra, gorgeous Blue-breasted Fairy-wrens and Rainbow Bee-eaters complete a fabulous tour. We may even catch a glimpse of the striped back and bushy tail of Western Australia’s faunal emblem, the Numbat.

Our guide Peter Taylor has lived in the tall timber country of ‘WA’ for more than twelve years and knows its birds and wildlife well.