Birds of Australia

Australia, the only country which is also a continent, is very special for bird enthusiasts. There are 969 bird species found there, but what's special is that 353 are endemic species, that is, they are found nowhere else but in Australia. In comparison, nearly 700 species of birds are seen in Bangladesh, but none are endemic.

While its bird variety is spread over the continent, a tropical rainforest in Northern Queensland called Wet Tropics holds an unusual concentration of Australia's birds. Recently I went to this forest on a birdwatching trip and our group saw close to two hundred bird species, many of them unusual and interesting.

I found the parrots of Australia to be extraordinary in colour and variety. They come in several groups, including lorikeets, galahs, rosellas, cockatoos, and, of course, parrots. Of these the most spectacular was also the commonest one – the brilliantly colourful Rainbow Lorikeet. The galah looked and behaved like a cross between a parrot and a dove. The parrots I saw varied in size from the diminutive, 5-inch Double-eyed Fig Parrot to the large, two-foot, Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. Virtually all of them are endemic to Australia.

Another widespread family is honeyeaters, a group of birds endemic to Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. Living on nectar and insects, some of them vaguely resemble our sunbirds or flowerpeckers. Some honeyeaters were colourful, such as the Scarlet Honeyeater. Others, such as the Dusky Honeyeater, were drab. We saw honeyeaters just about everywhere we went.

The kookaburras also caught my attention, not the least because I could come quite close to them. They are terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea. Of the four species of kookaburra in Australia, I saw the Laughing Kookaburra and the less common Blue-winged Kookaburra. Kookaburras are large like our Brown-winged Kingfishers, but – with brown and white feathers – not as colourful.

When walking through the forests, I occasionally saw mounds on the ground, made from soil and plant parts. These were Australian Brush-Turkey nests. The female lays its eggs inside the mound and leaves. The eggs then hatch without the presence of either parent. The chicks are self-sufficient at birth and scratch their way out of the mound!

Another bird of great interest that I photographed was Victoria's Riflebird, one of the four Birds of Paradise found in Australia. The Golden Bowerbird, which I covered in an earlier column, is an endangered bird we were lucky to find.

We also saw large birds such as bustards, cranes and cassowaries, as well as a variety of shorebirds.

While observing these birds and learning about Australia's birdlife, I found myself constantly comparing them to Bangladesh's birds. No doubt they have very interesting and colourful birds Down Under. But I was surprised to learn Australia has no woodpeckers (we have a dozen.) And while the Azure Kingfisher in Australia is spectacular, I am fairly certain that overall, our kingfishers are more colourful. Unlike Bangladesh, Australia does not fall under any major bird flyway (highways in the sky used by birds for migration), and their number of migrant species (especially migratory ducks) is less than in Bangladesh.

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