Backyard birds: Birding gems in urban Cairns
- Hidetoshi (Mikey) Kudo
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Hidetoshi (Mikey) Kudo | Cairns Area Coordinator
You don’t have to travel to the Wet Tropics rainforest or the remote corners of Cape York to find remarkable birds. Sometimes, some of the best birding is much closer to home.
As part of the Cairns Birding Festival, local birder Scott Ritchie presented Backyard Birds: Birding Gems in Urban Cairns at Stratford Library on 4 September, taking the audience on a tour of the surprising diversity of birds that can be found throughout suburban Cairns.
The talk formed part of BirdLife Australia’s Backyard Birding initiative, which encourages people to discover, appreciate, and better understand the birds living alongside us in our towns and cities.
Drawing on his local knowledge and experience, Scott highlighted some of his favourite urban birding locations and the species people might encounter there. His presentation was a reminder that parks, gardens, waterways, patches of vegetation, and even our own backyards can provide important habitat – and some memorable birding encounters.
For experienced birders, exploring familiar neighbourhoods can reveal species and behaviours that are easily overlooked. For people just beginning to notice the birds around them, backyard birding also provides an accessible way to start learning about identification, behaviour, habitat, and the extraordinary diversity of Far North Queensland’s birdlife.
Scott’s presentation brought the Cairns Birding Festival’s three-talk program to a fitting close: celebrating not only the spectacular birds people travel to Far North Queensland to see, but also those that share the places where we live.
If you missed the evening – or would simply like to enjoy Scott’s presentation again – you can watch the full recording below.
