Discover the spectacular Birdlife of the Sydney Region
Sydney is home to around 365 species of birds, from the iconic bowerbirds and lyrebirds to raptors, shorebirds the fairy-wrens and thornbills. Many are “bucket list” birds but all have a fascinating story and all are part of a bigger story too. You can meet them all on my tours.
My Services
Birding Tours
I offer a range of seasonally themed tours or Private, bespoke tours in the Sydney region.
Birding Workshops
In 2023 I am running three kinds of courses: ‘Bird Watching’, ‘Birding Essentials’ and ‘Little Brown Birds’.
The Bird Herd
Amazing School Holiday fun in Royal National Park for children from 8 to 12 years.
Bird Watching – Start your birding journey
Created for beginners, occasional birders and nature lovers, Bird Watching is a four part course which runs over four months. The course is comprised of four zoom conferences, four comprehensive ebooks, three engaging field assignments and six field trips which target building knowledge about birds and the environments they live in, field craft, bird calls, observation skills and bird identification.
This course will help you become a seasoned, confident birder, well equipped to walk into any bush or heath environment and find whole new dimensions of joy and wonder.
Next course August 12, 2024
Little Brown Birds of the Sydney Region
Little Brown Birds of the Sydney Region began as an ebook to help bird watchers overcome their issues with identifying the malurids (fairy-wrens and allies) and acanthizids (thornbills, gerygones and scrubwrens and their allies) of the greater Sydney Region. This printed edition features completely revised illustrations and additional chapters to cover the lives of these birds as well as tips on binocular choice, equipment, bird observation and field craft.
The entire text synthesises decades of research from many of Australia’s most celebrated ornithologists and researchers as well as my personal observations and experiences spanning more than two decades as a bird guide and educator. The species accounts section has been expanded and renewed. It’s packed with diagnostic illustrations, comparison images and features to assist in identification. There is truly something in every page of Little Brown Birds of the Sydney Region for every birder and nature lover.
Ricki’s Story
Ricki Coughlan is a highly regarded birder, bird guide, educator and presenter. In the course of almost two decades of leading tours in the Sydney region, north Western Australia and Central Australia she has built a reputation for the ability to not just find birds but share their stories in a way which enhances each encounter with passion, excitement and a greater understanding of the bird within its environment.
Ricki has also worked as an Avian Consultant, producing studies and reports for local government and enhancing opportunities for their preservation on local and broader scales. She has brought birds and people closer together helping a great many to share in the excitement of discovery with her highly regarded knowledge of birds, ecology, biogeography and behaviour. In addition to running many educational programs for local governments, NGOs and community groups, she established a number of citizen science projects including the long running monitoring of shorebirds on Sydney’s Long Reef.
Ricki holds a Grad Cert in Ornithology, is a past Warden of Broome Bird Observatory and worked as a guide and keeper for Earth Sanctuaries. She is an Educator at Sydney Zoo. She has also brought her love of nature and conservation to a wide audience with her appearances as an occasional presenter on the popular TV program “Totally Wild”. Ricki looks forward to welcoming you as a guest on your next birding adventure in the Sydney region and beyond.
Featured Poster: “Global Migration Champions!”
The Bar-tailed Godwit is one of the more recognisable and charismatic of migratory shorebirds. This poster celebrates the prodigious migration of the Bar-tailed Godwits which occur on the coastal wetlands of eastern Australian and New Zealand. They belong to a sub-species called “Baueri”.
Like all my posters and interpretive signs, this one is created in Adobe Illustrator and can be scaled to any size and retain its crispness. The goal is to create graphic content which is enticing and engaging, explaining concepts simply. I take a similar approach to the text, presuming no prior knowledge of any kind. This approach invites everyone to engage, appreciate and value the birds and wildlife with whom we share this land.
Aussie Wild acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land which we visit, the Dharawal and Darug people. We pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging.