“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known” – Carl Sagan
Join me for unforgettable bird and wildlife experiences in some of the stunning National Parks, bush reserves and aquatic reserves of the Sydney region. Amid these beautiful and unique forest, woodland and coastal environments we’ll encounter some of Australia’s and the world’s most sought after birdlife and nature experiences.
Birding tours for all tastes, budgets and experiences
The parks, reserves and wetlands of the Sydney region offer an excellent diversity and abundance of bird life, often in stunning locations and across all seasons. Our tours focus on the big seasonal events, creating opportunities to witness some of the great sights in nature, including perhaps the world of nature’s most iconic and sought after: the enthralling behaviours of the Superb Lyrebird during breeding season in the cooler months or the Satin Bowerbird, dancing around, cavorting in and fussing over his bower decorations in spring. Join a group tour or a bespoke personal tour where the focus is you and the birds you want to see. All trails are easy to traverse and all tours cater for beginners and experienced birders.
Tours, Courses and Workshop Brochure 2022-23
For extra detail on my tours, courses and workshops please use the button below to download my brochure.
Acknowledgement of Country
“When we talk about traditional ‘Country’, we mean something beyond the dictionary definition of the word. We might mean homeland, or tribal or clan area and we might mean more than just a place on the map.
“For us, Country is a word for all the values, places, resources, stories and cultural obligations associated with that area and its features. It describes the entirety of our ancestral domains.
“While they may all no longer necessarily be the title-holders to land, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are still connected to the Country of their ancestors and most consider themselves the custodians or caretakers of their land.” – Prof Mick Dodson
Private Day Tours
Sydney offers a large diversity and abundance of bird life, most of which are easily accessible. If you want a private, bespoke birding or bird photography tour Aussie Wild Nature Discovery can take you through the Royal National Park; national parks, reserves and wetlands in western Sydney; Long Reef and northern beaches reserves, or wetlands around the Sutherland Shire. Give me your list and I will find the birds for you. If you wish to have a private tour which is more general, I can put together a day trip which will deliver a fantastic range of beautiful birds in the most stunning wild locations that Sydney has to offer.
Private Tour Fee: $240.00
Song and Dance: A celebration of Lyrebird breeding season
This tour celebrates the breeding season of the Superb Lyrebird in the Royal National Park. Here amid the majestic forests of one of the world’s great National Parks we seek out encounters with these stunning birds, such as nest building, “dance offs” between immature males, territorial behaviour and sometimes practice display. We explore their mutualism with Yellow-throated Scrubwren and their role as ecological engineers in the forest. If we are very fortunate we may witness some preliminary courtship display and sometimes the actual courtship: one of the greatest sights in nature.
Group Tour Fee: $80.00 per person
Season Complete
Flowers and Fairy-wrens: A celebration of Spring on Curra Moors
Curra Moors is a vast stretch of coastal heath preserved within the Royal National Park. The diversity and abundance of flowering plants in this highly complex habitat produces not just one of the world’s greatest flowering events but also an excellent opportunity to view its birdlife. At this time the male Superb and Variegated Fairy-wrens are in their vibrant breeding plumage and very active. We also seek out the tiny Southern Emu-wren, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, meet a large diversity and abundance of honeyeaters, a range of raptors and, if fortunate, quail and pigeon species.
Group Tour Fee: $80.00 per person
East Meets West: Birding adventures in Western Sydney
Castlereagh and Wianamatta reserves in western Sydney preserve some of the last ironbark forests of the Cumberland Plains. These forests offer exceptional birding experiences, where it’s possible to encounter species we normally expect to find on the ranges and western slopes, as well as an assemblage of birds more typical of coastal regions. On these beautiful trails we encounter an excellent range of thornbills, honeyeaters, cuckoos, bronzewing pigeons, robins, woodswallows and whistlers. Eastern Shrike-tit and Painted Button Quail are regular sightings. During flowering periods the treetops accommodate a frenzy of honeyeaters and lorikeets.
Group Tour Fee: $80.00 per person
A Rainforest Calendar: Birds in the life of a rainforest
When British colonialists arrived inAustralia they brought a calendar based on the earth’s astronomical relationship with the sun and understood the seasonal patterns of change in a northern hemisphere context. However, here in the forests of temperate east Australia the interdependence of insects, plants, birds and animals create a different sense of seasons. In this tour we visit the rainforests of the Royal National Park to explore the seasonal synchronicity of the flowering and fruiting plants, the emergence of moths and butterflies, the arrivals and departures of migratory birds, the commencement of nesting season and fledging of young.
Group Tour Fee: $80.00 per person
Birding Workshops and Courses
I offer courses and workshops for birders who want to sharpen up their birding skills or take their birding to the next level or maybe want to dive into the fascinating world of bird watching and nature. This year I’m offering two courses, “Little Brown Birds” which is for regular birders who want to overcome the identification hurdles in this delightful and engaging assemblage of birds and “Bird Watching”; a six month in depth course for those who wish to start their birding journey or diversify their experiences when bushwalking or studying nature.
Little Brown Birds: A Birder’s Workshop
“Little Brown Birds” is a term used by many birders to describe the assemblage of thornbills, scrubwrens, gerygones and fairy-wrens which are often quite profuse in forests, woodlands and heath across Australia. These small insectivorous birds are all superficially similar in appearance, so they can often be a source of confusion for even experienced birders. In this workshop we unpack all the skills required to sharpen up our birding field craft, properly observe these birds and learn the easy keys to making a quick and confident identification of the Little Brown Birds of the Sydney region. Workshops are run in the Royal National Park and Castlereagh Reserve.
Group Tour Fee: $80.00 per person
Bird Watching: Start your birding journey
Bird Watching is a complete birding course designed to take beginners, irregular birders and nature lovers from their early steps in birding through to a mastery of all the field craft and know-how to create a lifetime of joy and wonder in nature.
Bird Watching is delivered over six months and comprised of six ebooks, six zoom conferences, six field trips and five engaging field assignments. The course is structured to progressively build the field skills, practical and theoretical know-how to make you a confident birder with a deeper understanding of the lives and stories of birds.
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.