Daintree Village

Visited: mid dry and early wet seasons

Recommendation: Daintree is legendary in its wildlife that is visible. It deserves that reputation and I will continue to return as often as possible.

You are at the mercy of the weather in Daintree and on a few visits, that has been awful and has made it difficult to get out on the river. On one such occasion, the weather was changeable with showers and sunshine alternating each day. I was lucky enough to get out on the river twice at dawn and twice in the afternoon. It is always desirable to go on the river both times, as the birds are always different. The minimum I saw were lots of horrible crocodiles but when the birds were about, they were magnificent. The highlight was several sightings of the Great-billed Heron.

Great-billed Heron (Ardea sumatrana)

There is always something to see on the river and it is always changing. I love seeing various herons and egrets flying along the river, roosting in trees or like this one below, sitting on floating logs. And it isn't always birds that you see. The eagle eyes of another guide found this lovely little Green Tree Snake watching us, as we watched it!

A highlight of any boat tour is finding Papuan Frogmouth. As you can see from the photos below, they are incredibly camouflaged and often hard to find. The photo on the left is the female, she is browner. The male on the right, had to be pointed out to me over and over again before I could see it. We found it on the dawn trip and amazingly, it was still there in exactly the same position on the dusk tour!

My favourite sightings were of Shining Flycatcher, seeing both the male and female sitting on nests but this photo of a male in the rain remains one of my most cherished photographs ever.

Shining Flycatcher (Myiagra alecto)