East Point Reserve

I parked near the mangrove boardwalk and stepped out of the car to have a brown falcon fly out of the tree at my head, and a rainbow pitta rush past my feet. Promising start, though no photo opps. The walk to the boardwalk is quite short, but a birders paradise.

A clump of bamboo provided a hiding spot for several types of finches, including the scarlet. A dingo moved off the path to let me pass - just a bike ride from the city-centre. Fantails and flycatchers flittered in the shrubs. Flowering mangroves had attracted so many friarbirds that I could hardly hear myself think, and the smaller honeyeaters, including the beautiful red-headed, had retreated to an area near the shore. Kingfishers waited on strategic branches.

A walk around the lake brought more honeyeaters, this time on the blossoms of the palm trees, dozens of fig birds, and a pair of nesting long-tailed finches. Also lakeside were herons, egrets and ibis, and a beach stone-curlew.

Bird List:

Lemon-bellied Flycatcher Microeca flavigaster (pictured above)

Red-headed Honeyeater Myzomela erythrocephala

Orange-footed Scrubfowl Megapodius reinwardt

Pied Cormorant Phalacrocorax varius

Great-billed Heron Ardea sumatrana

White-faced Heron Egretta novaehollandiae

White-necked Heron Ardea pacifica

Eastern Reef-Egret Egretta sacra

Straw-necked Ibis Threskiornis spinicollis
Australian White Ibis Threskiornis molucca

Black Kite Milvus migrans
Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus
Whistling Kite Haliastur sphenurus

Brown Falcon Falco berigora

Beach Stone-Curlew Esacus neglectus

Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles

Feral Pigeon Columba livia

Bar-shouldered Dove Geopelia humeralis

Forest Kingfisher Todiramphus macleayii

Sacred Kingfisher Todiramphus sanctus

Rainbow Bee-eater Merops ornatus

Rainbow Pitta Pitta iris

Red-browed Pardalote Pardalotus rubricatus

Little Friarbird Philemon citreogularis

Helmeted Friarbird Philemon buceroides
Blue-faced Honeyeater Entomyzon cyanotis

White-throated Honeyeater Melithreptus albogularis

Rufous-banded Honeyeater Conopophila albogularis

Brown Honeyeater Lichmera indistincta

Northern Fantail Rhipidura rufiventris
Magpie Lark Grallina cyanoleuca
Spangled Drongo Dicrurus bracteatus

Australian Figbird Sphecotheres vieilloti

White-breasted Woodswallow Artamus leucorhynchus

Double-barred Finch Taeniopygia bichenovii

Long-tailed Finch Poephila acuticauda

Crimson Finch Neochmia phaeton