The first bird of the cruise arrived before we left the dock.
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| Welcome Swallow, Daintree River Qld |
We started by cruising along a side branch of the river
Lots of birds were heard calling from the tree tops and from deep in the foliage but few allowed close-up views until we spotted this Graceful Honeyeater (lifer number 1 for the day).
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| Graceful Honeyeater, Daintree River Qld |
As we entered the mainstream of the river
we came across a large male crocodile basking on a sandbank.
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| Estuarine Crocodile, Daintree River Qld |
along with two species of egret
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| Little Egret, Daintree River Qld |
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| Eastern Great Egret, Daintree River Qld |
We cruised along close to the bank and spotted an Azure Kingfisher alight on a branch just on front of the boat. Bruce cut the engine and we floated close enough to get a great view of this spectacular little bird.
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| Azure Kingfisher, Daintree River Qld |
It even turned around to allow front and rear views. Quite the experienced photographic model :-)
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| Azure Kingfisher, Daintree River Qld |
My wife was itching to see a sunbird as we had seen their nests hanging from branches along the river bank and spotted flashes of yellow in the vegetation. We had just about resigned ourselves to missing clear views of these birds when this female landed on a nest right next to us.
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| Olive-backed Sunbird (female), Daintree River Qld |
The male was around but did not come close enough for a photograph. Other, more bedraggled, hanging nests were also common and, again, we eventually spied one of their owners.
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| Large-billed Gerygone, Daintree River Qld |
With all of the mangroves along the river bank we expected to find Striated Heron and eventually did.
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| Striated Heron, Daintree River Qld |
Just before we arrived back at the dock, a Whistling Kite landed in a tree close to the bank, albeit fairly high above us.
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| Whistling Kite, Daintree River Qld |
In all, 26 species of birds and 6 crocs....what a great morning!
