Wildlife of Western Australia

About the region

The Darling Range is a low range of hills running parallel with the Indian Ocean coast of Western Australia, and stretches for 350 kilometres from north to south. The range consists of some of the oldest rocks on Earth, and one of Australia’s major eucalypt forest regions occurs across the range.

Dryandra State Forest has around 800 species of plants including the beautiful silvery-white or orange-barked Wandoos and Powderbarks.

The picturesque Two People's Bay Nature Reserve is located 20 kilometres east of Albany and holds 188 bird species. It covers 26,000 hectares of forest, heathland, beaches and lakes, and the area was made a reserve to protect endangered species.

The tour ‘in a nutshell’

A 12-day tour in search of the endemic and other birds of the unique eucalyptus forests of the south-western corner of Western Australia.

What birds might I see?

The key bird species that we will be looking for in the Darling Range include such south-west Australian endemics as Red-capped Parrot, Western Rosella, Red-tailed Black-cockatoo (south-west forest race), Long-billed (Baudin's) Black-cockatoo, White-breasted Robin, Red-eared Firetail and Red-winged Fairy-wren.

Among the many bird species we’ll look for in Dryandra are Collared Sparrowhawk, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Painted Button-quail, Brush Bronzewing, Purple-crowned Lorikeet, Red-capped Parrot, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Tawny Frogmouth, Rufous Treecreeper, Blue-breasted Fairy-wren and Western Thornbill. In the Stirling Ranges some of the species we’ll look for include Western Yellow Robin, Elegant Parrot, Western Rosella, Australian Owlet-nightjar, Crested Shrike-tit and Rufous Songlark.

From our base at Albany we’ll visit Cheyne Beach, home to the ‘big three’ – Western Bristlebird, Western Whipbird and Noisy Scrub-bird. We will also look for the Brush Bronzewing, Long-billed Black-cockatoo, Red-capped Parrot, Red-winged Fairy-wren, White-breasted Robin, Little (Western) Wattlebird, Western Spinebill, Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, Southern Emu-wren and Pacific Gull among many other species.

Anything else?

Dryandra is home to Echidnas and Tammar Wallabies, as well as the striped Numbat – a Western Australian endemic.

Wild flowers, especially orchids, in the Stirling Ranges.

If we are very fortunate we may see Southern Right Whales in the bay at Cheyne Beach.