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Visited: all year round
Recommendation: The clearing at Mount Lewis is a mecca for wildlife watchers and I will always try to get there. However, access was severely damaged after Cyclone Jasper in 2023. Check with local birders before visiting.
The track up Mount Lewis is challenging, especially if you are driving a little 4 wheel drive campervan! Most people head to the clearing, about two thirds of the way up. It is a small patch of grass surrounded by thick rainforest but it is a good place to start as you can park there and there is a track leading down to the dam. That walk is always worth doing.
It's always worth checking any likely spots on the way up the track. Right at the bottom, just past the houses, you drive over the creek and there are Noisy Pitta there at times. My best find was a very obliging Azure Kingfisher one day.
Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea)
Once at the clearing on my luckiest visit, I saw my target bird, the Blue-faced Parrotfinch, early on. I watched them for a while and was joined by some other birders. Some of us rather foolishly wandered into the long grass. It was only later that a local reptile expert showed me where a very large scrub python was sleeping, metres away from where I had been walking. While the python is not venomous, he told me there were black-bellied vipers around. I felt a little nauseous.
Thankfully I did get a couple of shots of the finch. It was such a beautiful bird.
Blue-faced Parrotfinch (Erythrura trichroa)
My only sighting in Far North Queensland of the Eastern Spinebill was here. They are tiny, colourful honeyeaters with a large bill. I don't remember having trouble finding them in previous visits so I was just grateful to see them here.
Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris)
Fluttering around my van were some fantail. I have never managed to get a really good shot of the Rufous Fantail as they just stick in the shadows. After numerous visits, I finally got one sitting out for me. The Grey Fantail is much more confiding and busy looking for bugs. The problem with getting a shot of them is that they never sit still!
Grey Fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa)
Rufous Fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons)
Another rarity I have seen here is the Mountain Thornbill. I love the little thornbills. They are usually in groups and chatter away as they move through the bush. I have only seen this thornbill a couple of times so I was happy to find them bouncing around and occasionally stopping for a photograph.
Mountain Thornbill (Acanthiza katherina)
This is a great place to get small, rainforest birds like the scrubwren. I have seen all three species here over the years. While photography is difficult because of the low light and that these birds scrabble around on the ground in the undergrowth, with perseverance, I have got ID shots anyway.
Yellow-throated Scrubwren (Sericornis citreogularis)
Atherton Scrubwren (Sericornis keri)
Large-billed Scrubwren (Sericornis magnirostris)
There are also honeyeaters in the clearing but only really the rainforest specialists.
White-cheeked Honeyeater (Phylidonyris nigra)
Bridled Honeyeater (Bolemoreus frenatus)
Lewin's Honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii)
There are 4 possible bowerbirds to be found on Mount Lewis. The Great and the Satin are pretty common and easily found elsewhere. Birders come here to find the Tooth-billed and the Golden. Both are very unusual, cryptic and rare. It is much easier to find them if you visit with a guide or local birders.
Golden Bowerbird (Amblyornis newtoniana)
Tooth-billed Bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris)
Other rainforest specialists can be tracked down, like the Chowchilla and the Victoria's Riflebird. This juvenile bird is practising his courtship display.
Chowchilla (Orthonyx spaldingii)
Victoria's Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae)
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