Endemic Birds of Tasmania

Arrive at your own pace and make your way to your hotel in Sandy Bay. This evening, meet your guide and fellow travellers for a briefing on the tour ahead and a welcome dinner. Overnight in Sandy Bay.

An early start takes you through some of Hobart's finest birding locations, including the Hobart Rivulet Park, Cascade Gardens, and Kunanyi / Mount Wellington, with several short walks exploring a variety of habitats along the way. Targets include scrubtit, Tasmanian scrubwren, black currawong, pink robin, olive whistler, and Tasmanian thornbill. On a clear day, the 1,271m summit offers sweeping views across southern Tasmania. After a picnic lunch, the journey continues south to catch the ferry across the d'Entrecasteaux Channel to Lunawuni / Bruny Island, scanning for white-bellied sea eagle, kelp and Pacific gulls, black-faced cormorant, and Australasian gannet en route. Check in to the lodge at Alonnah, overlooking Sunset Bay and the distant Hartz Mountains. Overnight on Lunawuni / Bruny Island.

Lunawuni / Bruny Island is home to all 12 of Tasmania's endemic bird species, and today is devoted to finding them across the island's diverse habitats: dry forests, coastal heathland, beaches and farmland. Targets include forty-spotted pardalote, dusky robin, Tasmanian native-hen, swift parrot, brush bronzewing, hooded plover and a variety of honeyeaters and robins. Scanning offshore may produce shy and black-browed albatross, Australasian gannet, and short-tailed shearwater. After dark, a nocturnal session searches for elusive mammals, including eastern quoll and long-nosed potoroo. Overnight at Hotel Bruny Lodge, Alonnah.

A final morning of birding on Lunawuni / Bruny Island before catching the ferry back to the mainland. Depending on time and any species still to be found, stops may be made at Peter Murrell and Truganini Conservation Areas en route to Hobart. The afternoon brings a visit to Gould's Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary just north of the city, an excellent location for waterfowl and rallidae with regular sightings of Latham's snipe, Australian, spotless and Baillon's crakes, little grassbird, Tasmanian native-hen, and diverse duck species. Dinner is at a Hobart restaurant. Overnight in Sandy Bay.

A scenic flight from Cambridge Aerodrome transports you to Melaleuca, deep in Tasmania's remote Southwest Wilderness, one of Australia's most inaccessible and extraordinary natural environments, reachable only by air, boat, or a very long and arduous hike. The buttongrass moorlands surrounding Melaleuca are the only known breeding location of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot, and a dedicated hide and feeding table offer exceptional viewing opportunities. A stroll through tea-tree scrubland and woodland reveals beautiful firetail, striated fieldwren, southern emu-wren, ground parrot, and olive whistler among others. A gourmet lunch of local Tasmanian produce is served before the scenic return flight in the mid-afternoon. Please note this day is weather-dependent; alternative options for this day's activities will be offered if conditions prevent flying. Overnight in Sandy Bay.

A drive to the east coast is followed by a ferry crossing to the car-free and rugged Wukaluwikiwayna / Maria Island, an entire national park with no permanent residents. Almost all of Tasmania's endemic bird species occur here, and walks through the island's varied habitats offer excellent chances of cape Barren goose, Tasmanian native-hen, pied and sooty oystercatcher, hooded plover, swift parrot, forty-spotted pardalote, and diverse honeyeaters and robins. Eastern grey kangaroos, Tasmanian pademelons, and wombats are regularly encountered and a population of Tasmanian devils released here as an insurance colony continues to grow. The return ferry to the mainland is followed by optional stops at wetlands or mudflats en route to search for waders if conditions allow. Overnight in Sandy Bay.

After a final breakfast, bid farewell to your guide and fellow travellers. Complimentary transfers to Hobart Airport are included for those with onward flights.