What's About: Cairns & Tablelands Birding, 24 - 30 August 2026

For three weeks the Common Redshank has owned this column. This week it finally began to hand the stage back. The reports thinned as the crowds eased off, and while the bird was still being seen early in the week, the Esplanade slowly returned to something like normal. What filled the gap is the best kind of news: spring migration has arrived in force.

The Redshank eases

It has been a remarkable run. A bird from the far side of the world dropped onto the Cairns mud, stayed the better part of a fortnight, and drew more birders to one stretch of foreshore than we have seen in a long time. This week the tally of reports fell away day by day, the natural end to any twitch as the must-see becomes the has-been-seen. If you still want it, it may yet be about on the falling tide at the northern end, but the great rush is over. It was a genuine event while it lasted, and one plenty of people will remember for a long time.

The migrants pour in

The real story now is the season. Late August is when the returning shorebirds and summer migrants start arriving in earnest, and this week the floodgates opened. Fresh in on the coast were a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and a Wood Sandpiper, a Black-faced Monarch in the rainforest, a Large-tailed Nightjar and an Australian Owlet-nightjar after dark, and an Eastern Barn Owl up towards Wonga Beach. Out on the reef the seabirds put on a show of their own, with a White-tailed Tropicbird, a Wilson's Storm-Petrel and a Hutton's Shearwater all logged offshore. Up on the Tablelands a Masked Woodswallow, an Australian Pratincole and a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper added to the sense of movement. After a quiet winter, the place is filling up again.

Around the region

There was plenty else about for those out looking. The Cairns Esplanade and its mangroves turned up a Varied Honeyeater, a Mangrove Gerygone and a Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, while the Lamb Range produced a Superb Fruit-Dove and a Pale-yellow Robin. Up on the Tablelands the Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo was still being reported around the Mount Molloy country, and the Green Island Ashy-bellied White-eyes continued to show. Effort held up well across both regions, with the Mount Molloy and Julatten patches and the Crater Lakes especially busy.

Flagged as unusual by eBird

Several records were flagged as unusual by eBird over the week. As always, we treat these as provisional until they are confirmed:

• Common Redshank - still reported early in the week on the Cairns Esplanade.
• Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove - reported on the Cairns Esplanade.
• Superb Fruit-Dove - reported at the Lamb Range.
• Pale-yellow Robin - reported at the Lamb Range.
• Varied Honeyeater - reported around the Cairns foreshore.
• Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo - reported on the Tablelands, near Mount Molloy.
• Ashy-bellied White-eye - reported from Green Island, off Cairns.

These records are flagged as unusual by eBird's automated filters and may be reviewed, corrected or withdrawn afterwards. We re-check each one against eBird before posting, but a flagged sighting is provisional until it is confirmed.

Our thanks, as ever, to everyone who got out and logged what they saw, and to the local photographers who share their shots; the whole picture is built from all of it.

That was the week around Cairns and the Tablelands. The Redshank may be bowing out, but with the migrants arriving daily, the best of the season is just getting started.