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The female king parrot is distinguishable from the male
because of her green head. The parrots were about 1.5
feet long and a beautiful sing-song voice.
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The male king parrot has a red head. There were many more
males than females eating seed out of our hands at O'Reilly's
Ecolodge in Lamington National Park.
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The crimson rosella was about the same size as the king
parrots. They were more easily spotted away from the
feeding station, though.
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Male regent bowerbirds were the mascots of O'Reilly's.
They were more skittish than the parrots and ate small bits
of fruit from your hands.
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Male satin bowerbirds resembled small crows, but they
had distinguishing purple eyes. One of them had a
collection of blue straws in his nest on the ground.
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Female satin bowerbirds and regent bowerbirds look
almost nothing like their mates.
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The pied butcherbird was a common site. Sometimes it
was hard to tell them apart from the magpies. This one is
enjoying a piece of fruit, but they also eat meat.
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The galah (accent on the 2nd syllable) is a pink
cockatoo. We saw small flocks mostly in southern Queensland.
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Rainbow lorikeets were absolutely everywhere. And
everywhere they went they made an argumentative ruckuss.
But they sure were beautiful birds. When not being fed
bread and sugarwater, they ate the bottlebrush flowers
sometimes while hanging upside down.
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We saw the sacred ibis wherever there was water. This
odd-looking bird reminded me of an evil Disney character.
It made a honking sound like a goose and had a small pink
(bald?) patch on the back of its head.
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This female black-necked stork found its way into
David Fleay's Wildlife Preserve temporarily. Its yellow
eyes let you know it's a female.
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The nankeen night heron is a nocturnal bird not easily
seen. This one we saw at David Fleay's just before closing
time, but we saw another at Daintree.
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Our Lakeside Bed and Breakfast hosts named this crane
Charlie. It was a beautiful bird about 2 feet tall that
paid us a visit for breakfast. It wouldn't leave until
after it was fed.
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We found this photogenic Australian pelican waiting for
some excitement next to his fisherman pal in Hervey Bay.
We saw more in the Atherton Tablelands later in our trip.
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This Australian woodduck family liked to eat bread
handouts at our Hervey Bay accomodations.
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We saw thousands of common white-capped noddies nesting
wherever they could on Lady Elliot Island.
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Railbirds flew from the mainland to live on Lady Elliot
Island, but they pretty much walked all the time. No snakes
to eat them here and plenty of food, so it's the perfect home.
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A pair of pied oystercatchers combs the rocks for food.
We saw these on Lady Elliot Island, but saw one in action
on Fraser Island. They jam their beaks into the sand and
usually come up with the insides of an oyster.
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A frigate bird soars above the beaches and trees of
Lady Elliot Island looking for unguarded noddy or tern eggs.
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Bush turkeys were everywhere. They were way too busy
collecting leaf litter for their nesting mounds to care if
you were in their way on a path or not.
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We didn't learn that the name of this bird was the masked
lapwing until we looked it up in a book back home.
Although these guys were common, we tended to see them alone.
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It took 3 drive-by's in a car to take this photo of a
black-shouldered kite out in the Atherton Tablelands.
Thanks to the readers who identified it for me!!
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You'll probably hear the sulfur-crested cockatoo before
you see him, they are so noisy. We saw them in pairs and
in large flocks.
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Ospreys are as common and as easy to spot in Australia
as they are in the US.
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The azure kingfishers we saw in Daintree reminded us
of large hummingbirds, although they couldn't hover or fly
backwards. They liked to put their backs to the cameras.
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A darter doesn't have waterproof feathers, so he has
to dry them out in the sun and wind. These were common
along the Daintree River.
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You can see and hear Magpie-Larks anywhere you
go in Queensland. They're skittish and quick though, but
they have a lovely and varied song.
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I only saw one forest kingfisher on the trip, and
that was in Port Douglas on a fence near a field. It flew
away before I could get closer.
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Sunbirds were everywhere. They were tiny and move
jerkily.
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The laughing kookaburra can be found all over
Queensland. They are the largest member of the kingfisher
family and they eat meat. Their call sounds more like a
monkey in a jungle than a bird.
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Sooty terns were seen nesting on Michaelmas Cay along
with noddies. They never bothered to build a nest -- the
open sand worked well enough for them as long as they could
protect their eggs from the seagulls.
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It was unusual to find a pair of boobies nesting on
Michaelmas Cay with all of the noddies and terns.
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This white crane was getting into mischief on Green
Island at the outdoor restaurant. I thought it odd to see
it on an island instead of in the cow pastures where the
rest of them were.
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A number of crested terns relax on a buoy offshore of
Green Island.
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