Melbourne Area Guided Birding

privately guided birding trips on request

Melbourne Birding Tours

A day’s birding in the vicinity of Melbourne can result in an amazing variety of birds. There is a great diversity of well-protected habitats that can easily be visited during a day trip. These include temperate rainforests in the scenic Yarra and Dandenong ranges behind the city, which harbour Superb Lyrebird, Pink Robin, Red-browed Treecreeper, Satin Bowerbird and many secretive bush birds; freshwater and coastal wetlands, including one of Australia’s premier birding destinations, the Western Treatment Plant, a vast complex of lagoons, swamps, waterways, grasslands and coastal shoreline.

Birds in Melbourne

An abundance of waders and waterbirds take advantage of these food-rich wetlands for feeding, with nearby areas of higher ground for roosting. Apart from most southern Australian waterfowl species, less common birds to be found here include Golden-headed Cisticola, Striated Fieldwren, Lewin’s Rail, Fairy Tern, Blue-winged Parrot, Black Falcon and many more. Other habitats within reach of the city include farmland, remnant pockets of native vegetation, and rural & urban environments. This variety of habitats can easily be covered in a day’s birding and will result in sightings of many different bird species: waterbirds, raptors, parrots, cockatoos, lorikeets, honeyeaters, robins, treecreepers, flycatchers, fairy-wrens, finches and many, many more.

Birdlife in Melbourne

  • Superb Lyrebird, Satin Bowerbird
  • Red-browed & White-throated Treecreeper
  • Pink, Rose, Flame & Scarlet Robin,
  • Eastern Whipbird, Brush Cuckoo
  • Black-faced Monarch, Satin Flycatcher
  • Bassian Thrush, Pilotbird
  • Olive Whistler, Rufous Bristlebird
  • Cape Barren Goose & many other waterbirds
  • Striated Fieldwren, Sthn Emu-wren

Birdwatching Tours in Melbourne

Our local guides are available to take you out birding for any duration. If you like to do a “Big Day”, we aim to maximise the species list by visiting a variety of habitats (expect 100-120 species, more in our spring and summer when migratory species, including waders / shorebirds are present). If you like to have a relaxed birding day we’ll show you the highlights of our local area, visiting a number of different parks and reserves each with its own unique birdlife. Perhaps you’d like to focus on bird photography? Our experienced, knowledgeable and friendly guides are more than happy to show you their favourite birding spots and adjust the day to your particular wishes. Contact us now to arrange your privately guided Melbourne birding tour.

Birding Trip in Melbourne

If you have more time, why not let one of our guides take you on a multi-day birding trip further afield, incorporating areas too far to visit in a day trip, each with their own set of unique birds. Examples include the “Mallee” reserves of western Victoria with birds such as Malleefowl (in season), Mallee Emu-wren, Major Mitchell’s (Pink) Cockatoo, Regent Parrot and many more. Or the riverine floodplain forests of the Vic-NSW border region where Superb Parrot, Diamond Firetail, Painted Buttonquail, Pied Honeyeater and other good species can be found, with the highlight being a night spotlighting session for the highly endangered Plains Wanderer on the vast plains surrounding these rivers. The beautiful Great Ocean Road is not only known for its scenery, but also holds good birds like Hoodd Plover, Rufous Bristlebird, Southern Emu-wren, Gang-gang Cockatoo, Blue-winged Parrot and Tawny-crowned Honeyeater. The Box-Ironbark forests of north-eastern Victoria have their own specialties such as Speckled Warbler, Regent and Black-chinned Honeyeater, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren and the beautiful Turquoise Parrot. The possibilities are endless, the choice is yours…

Enquire for a Melbourne birding tour