Darwin River Tavern

Visited: late dry season

Recommendation: This is a great place to stay if you are in the area. If you are looking to photograph specific waterbirds, you might visit specifically. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't go out of your way to come here.

Ok, so this isn't really bird watching in the purest sense. But this is a nice site, great pub and best of all, there is a small pond in the garden which affords some photography opportunities of a range of birds. The Darwin River Tavern is situated on the Darwin River itself, and it has attached a caravan park. It is not that attractive, there's very little shelter as you're essentially in a field. The tavern itself is obviously a community kind of centre, with a supermarket attached to it and a very, good happy hour (which I can thoroughly recommend). But the small pond in the garden was where I spent some time during my stay. 

The most attractive birds on the pond were the herons. There was a couple of Pied Herons, a Great White Egrets and a Pacific Heron. I haven't photographed Pied Heron very much, so I focused on them and it was quite good to get shots of this bird in breeding plumage. 

The Rajah Shelducks were here, and I always like seeing them because they're so different than any other duck. When you think about it, there are precious few birds or waterfowl that have so much white on them, particularly a white head. I'm not sure what the evolutionary reason is for that, but it makes them stand out, and they are very interesting. 

Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna radjah) 

Lots of Plumed Whistling Ducks were here as they are throughout the Top End, but you can never go past them. They're very, very endearing with their soft whistling call as they chatter away to each other. There were a few Magpie Geese, ibis and guinea fowl as well as common cockatoo and honeyeaters. Anyway, it's worth a visit. 

Plumed Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna eytoni)