Cairns and Wet Tropics birding tours
From a half-day around the lakes to eight days through endemic territory. Small, privately guided groups.
Recent Sightings
View all recent sightings ↓Endemics
- Bridled HoneyeaterToday
- Pied MonarchYesterday
Rare & Unexpected
- Ashy-bellied White-eyeYesterday
- Ashy-bellied White-eye5 days ago
The 15 Wet Tropics endemics
Found only in this rainforest, found nowhere else on Earth
Tooth-billed Bowerbird
Scenopoeetes dentirostris
Golden Bowerbird
Prionodura newtoniana
Chowchilla
Orthonyx spaldingii
Fernwren
Oreoscopus gutturalis
Mountain Thornbill
Acanthiza katherina
Atherton Scrubwren
Sericornis keri
Macleay's Honeyeater
Xanthotis macleayanus
Bridled Honeyeater
Bolemoreus frenatus
Cryptic Honeyeater
Meliphaga imitatrix
Yellow-spotted Honeyeater
Meliphaga notata
Bower's Shrike-thrush
Colluricincla boweri
Victoria's Riflebird
Ptiloris victoriae
Pied Monarch
Arses kaupi
Grey-headed Robin
Heteromyias cinereifrons
Lesser Sooty Owl
Tyto multipunctata
Iconic Wet Tropics species
The signature birds beyond the endemics - Cassowary, Paradise Kingfisher, Lovely Fairywren, and more
Southern Cassowary
Casuarius casuarius
Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher
Tanysiptera sylvia
Lovely Fairywren
Malurus amabilis
Spotted Catbird
Ailuroedus maculosus
Victoria's Riflebird
Ptiloris victoriae
Pied Monarch
Arses kaupi
Tooth-billed Bowerbird
Scenopoeetes dentirostris
From our field guide
Species we encounter on day tours through Cairns, the Daintree, and the Atherton Tablelands.
Macleay's Honeyeater
Xanthotis macleayanus
Bridled Honeyeater
Bolemoreus frenatus
Grey-headed Robin
Heteromyias cinereifrons
Spotted Catbird
Ailuroedus maculosus
Yellow-spotted Honeyeater
Meliphaga notata
Pied Monarch
Arses kaupi
Tooth-billed Bowerbird
Scenopoeetes dentirostris
Golden Bowerbird
Prionodura newtoniana
Victoria's Riflebird
Ptiloris victoriae
Lesser Sooty Owl
Tyto multipunctata
Chowchilla
Orthonyx spaldingii
Atherton Scrubwren
Sericornis keri
Photographs courtesy of contributors to the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Each photographer is credited on their species page.
Join a Guided Expedition
8 days. Around 250 species, including all 15 endemic targets. Small, privately guided groups. Led by Clayton Smith, who has spent over 20 years birding these rainforests.
View Expedition Details →What's Being Seen Right Now
Recent reports from the Wet Tropics birding community.
Bridled Honeyeater
Bolemoreus frenatus
Pied Monarch
Arses kaupi
Chowchilla
Orthonyx spaldingii
Chowchilla
Orthonyx spaldingii
Atherton Scrubwren
Sericornis keri
Golden Bowerbird
Prionodura newtoniana
Fernwren
Oreoscopus gutturalis
Atherton Scrubwren
Sericornis keri
Fernwren
Oreoscopus gutturalis
Based on recent eBird reports. Sightings are community-reported and not guaranteed.
Updated 23 June 2026, 03:46 pm · Data: eBird/Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Every Season Brings Something Different
There's no bad time to bird the Wet Tropics. There are different times. The dry season brings clear mornings and active bowerbird displays. The wet season delivers breeding plumage, nesting behaviour, and summer migrants from New Guinea and the Torres Strait.
Vagrants turn up without warning. A rare migrant appears over the Tablelands. A seabird gets pushed inland by a cyclone. The feed above gives you a sense of what's happening right now, but conditions change week to week, and the real picture comes from being on the ground every day.
This is a place worth returning to. I've been doing it for twenty years and the list keeps growing.
Your Guide
Clayton Smith
I've spent twenty-odd years in these rainforests. The Wet Tropics got under my skin early. The dawn chorus at Lake Barrine, a Golden Bowerbird glowing in the understorey, the Lesser Sooty Owl dropping its bloodcurdling screech into the dark at midnight. Once you've seen it, you don't leave.
I was a finalist in the Cairns Tourism Awards, which was a nice recognition, but what I actually care about is putting people in front of the birds they've travelled halfway around the world to see. I know where these species are, I know their rhythms, and I know how to read the conditions on any given morning.
Our flagship is the 8-day expedition targeting around 250 species, including all 15 Wet Tropics endemics, across the full elevational gradient from coastal lowlands to the mountaintops. We search rainforest river systems for platypus, spend nights at altitude for the mammals no other operator is targeting, and sweep for anything missed on the final day.
- 20+ years guiding in the Wet Tropics
- Swarovski ATX optics provided for digiscoping
- Small, privately guided groups.
- English and German spoken
Planning a birding trip to the Wet Tropics?
You're probably here for the endemics. So are we, and so is every minute of the day we spend in the field. But the region doesn't stop at 15 species. Half of Australia's birds live here, and on any given day we might be watching a Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher when a Little Kingfisher drops in below it. That's just how birding works up here. Tell us when you're coming and what you're hoping to see. We'll build the days around it.
View Our Tours →