Birds With Altitude Campout: October 2025
- Lindsay Fisher
- 18 hours ago
- 5 min read
Lindsay Fisher | Treasurer
Back in 2022, BirdLife Northern Queensland (BLNQ) members held a Planning Meeting and split into groups to work on new projects. Ceri Pearce’s group had the idea of targeting the Wet Tropics bird species that are likely to be affected by climate change, and came up with the catchy name ‘Birds With Altitude’ (BWA).
It is always a thrill to be able to go through a locked gate in a National Park and go birding on tracks to which other people have no access. This is just one of the many attractions in joining the BWA surveys, along with learning about our high-altitude birds and meeting other birders.
As Ceri lived in Innisfail, she chose to make the Misty Mountains, in Tropical North Queensland’s Wooroonooran National Park, the main area for the initial surveys. This would give the opportunity to monitor the birds at different altitudes, by using the many old logging tracks which range from 400 m – 900 m Above Sea Level (ASL), making them ideal for bird surveys. Funding was obtained from the Queensland Government Sustainability Action Grant for a pilot project, and surveys have been completed for the past three years.
We attended the BWA campout held on the long weekend of 3 – 6 October 2025. This was based at the South Johnstone Forestry Camp on K-tree Road, in the Misty Mountains section of Wooroonooran National Park.
This beautiful campground is situated close to the Johnstone River, and has an old Forestry hut that we were able to access thanks to the ongoing Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service (QNPWS) support of the project. Having the luxury of flushing toilets and a cold shower (brrr…), as well as a communal area, in which to gather together in the evenings, was most appreciated.
Friday afternoon was time to set up camp, meet the other participants, and socialise while recording the many birds that call the 400 m ASL site their home.
The next morning, we set off in convoy through a locked gate to Bora Ground Road, and then through a further locked gate to the scientific reserves on West Maalan Track which took us up to our first survey points at 850 m ASL.
We split into two groups to do BirdLife Australia’s standard surveys – 500 m area surveys followed by 2-hectare 20-minute surveys.
Rainforest birding is challenging, and it took us a while to tune our ears into the sounds of the birds, but we were soon busy listing, while sometimes quietly playing a call to confirm identity.
Our next site was at 750 m ASL on Bora Ground Road, and we had a few different species – reflecting the lower altitude. A stop for lunch had us entertained by a Tooth-billed Bowerbird calling from his platform close by.
Back to camp for a break, then we were off in the other direction over the river causeway, and continuing along Maple Creek Road to do further surveys at around 600 m ASL.
Sunday was a similar day with different sites visited and the species numbers gradually increasing. These included a Southern Cassowary walking along one of the tracks – most of us had to make do with only seeing Cassowary poo.
The weather had been perfect for the weekend, which is unusual for this notoriously wet stretch of forest close to the coast. However, on Sunday night we started to hear showers on and off, but after we donned our raincoats first thing on Monday morning, the blue skies returned.
Then it was time for the seven of us to pack up and head home again after a delightful weekend of birding and socialising. We all felt very satisfied at contributing another 25 surveys to this very worthwhile project.
Many thanks to: Ceri Pearce for her excellent organisation of this event; the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) for its ongoing support of the Birds With Altitude project; and our volunteers for their valuable field support.
What birds were recorded?
63 bird species were identified by sight or call.
Of the 25 BirdLife Australia standardised surveys completed during the weekend, the most common bird detected, with its penetrating call, was Victoria’s Riflebird (in 23 surveys). Brown Cuckoo Dove and Eastern Whipbird were identified in 20 surveys.
The least common birds detected were: Atherton Scrubwren; Australian Brush-turkey; Double-eyed Fig-Parrot; Dusky Honeyeater; Fairy Gerygone; Fernwren; Helmeted Friarbird; Rainbow Bee-eater; Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove; Rufous Fantail; Scarlet Honeyeater; and Yellow-faced Honeyeater, all of which were only detected in a single survey each over the long weekend.
Brown Gerygone was observed nesting at an 800 m ASL site.
Male Tooth-billed Bowerbirds were busy building and maintaining their display stages at a number of sites between 700 m and 850 m ASL.
Red-necked Crake and Bassian Thrush were detected and recorded as incidental observations.
Pigeons and fruit-doves were seen eating clusters of seeds, likely Polyscias murrayi, but possibly P. elegans. (Plant identification thanks to Claire Willard and Greg Calvert.)
We were not quite high enough to see Golden Bowerbird.
The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020 (Garnett & Baker, 2021) identifies 14 Threatened Wet Tropics birds. The following table identifies the species and number of surveys in which they were detected during this study.
Bird identified | Number of surveys in which detected |
Wet Tropics King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis minor) | 4 |
Tooth-billed Bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris) | 12 |
Golden Bowerbird (Prionodura newtoniana) | 0 |
Wet Tropics Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus minor) | 0 |
Little Treecreeper (Cormobates leucophaea minor) | 9 |
Fernwren (Orescopus guttularis) | 1 |
Brown Gerygone (Gerygone mouki mouki) | 6 |
Atherton Scrubwren (Sericornis keri) | 1 |
Large-billed Scrubwren (Sericornis magnirostra viridior) | 13 |
Mountain Thornbill (Acanthiza katherina) | 2 |
Bower’s Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla boweri) | 7 |
Eastern Whipbird (Psophodes olivaceus lateralis) | 20 |
Victoria’s Riflebird (Lophorina victoriae) | 23 |
Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons) | 18 |
More information regarding Birds With Altitude can be found here:
