An Australian icon: a laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) in a gum tree.

A kookaburra at the birdbath. Kookaburras are quite aggressive and other birds usually get out of their way.

These two kookaburras are laughing up a storm: "Oooh-eee-ooooh aaah-aaah-aaah-aaahh ooh ooooh oooh aaahhhh aahh aahhhhh!" They have built a nest in an old termite mound in the tree nearby.

This is a forest kingfisher (Todiramphus macleayii). Sorry for the lousy picture - we rarely see these little birds, and this shy female flew away before I could get closer.

A helmeted friarbird (Philemon buceroides) feeding on grevillea nectar. Despite their pious names, friarbirds are noisy and quarrelsome.

The peculiar silhouette of a helmeted friarbird.

A little friarbird (Philemon citreogularis), I think. More sonorous and polite than its uglier, noisier, helmeted cousin.

A yellow honeyeater (Lichenostomus flavus) at the birdbath.

A dusky honeyeater (Myzomela obscura) feeding on grevillia nectar.

Two honeyeaters on a grevillea bush. I'm not sure of the species - they may be white-throated honeyeaters, Melithreptus albogularis.

A yellow-bellied sunbird (Nectorinia jugularis). The males have an iridescent purple throat; this is a female.

A yellow-bellied sunbird searching for insects on our verandah window. Sunbirds are keen hunters as well as graceful nectar-eaters.

A little wattlebird (Anthochaera chrysoptera) making a racket. There was a whole flock of them in the tree.   **

A blue-faced honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis).

This blue-faced honeyeater is curious about my camera.

A bar-shouldered dove (Geopelia humeralis). These abundant doves have an unmistakable call: "Coo-coo coo-coo."

This picture of a bar-shouldered dove shows the colours and the sheen a little bit better. Coo-coo coo-coo!

A Torres Strait Imperial Pigeon (Ducula bicolor, L) shares a palm tree with a figbird (Sphecotheres viridis, R). I was so excited to see the rare pigeon that I didn't even notice the figbird until after I had taken the picture! (This was at Finch Hatton, a town near the rainforest 80 km inland from Cape Hillsborough.)

The peaceful dove (Geopelia striata) is indeed peaceful, with a call of "coo-crr-coo" that is less assertive than the bar-shouldered dove's.

Two crested pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes) foraging in a park.   **

One of our ubiquitous Torresian crows (Corvus orru). This one is tearing apart its favourite prey: a raw chicken wing it got from Val across the street.

A flock of crows approaching a gum tree.

A juvenile Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen, black-backed race) surveys his hunting-ground. The juveniles can be distinguished by their brown plumage and their clumsy, eager attitude. Unlike their cousins the crows, Australian magpies have beautiful bell-like voices.

An adult female magpie (white-backed race) trots across a golf course. Magpies are ubiquitous across the continent, and their cleverness, toughness, and practicality make them a popular icon. There are many local footy teams called "The Magpies".   **

  (a category of convenience rather than taxonomy!)

A masked lapwing (Vanellus miles), a large wattle-faced plover often found on lawns and pastures. Their voice is a harsh "Kek-kek kek-kek reee-at-at-at," so we have nicknamed them "reat birds."

Uh-oh, I have approached too close to this lapwing's nest, and it is very upset with me. "Kek! Kek! Reee-at-at-at-at!" it screams. (Its mate was equally zealous.) Do you see the egg in the upper left? That's not much of a nest, is it? Hence my accidental intrusion and the lapwings' furious response.   *

Do you see the spurs on the wings? These are for clobbering trespassers such as myself. So I retreated soon after taking this picture (you can see that the bird is still scolding me at the top of its lungs).   *

A magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca), which is related to neither magpies nor larks. The white eyebrow distinguishes this as a male. Magpie-larks are notable for building large mud nests.

Two bush thick-knees (Burhinus grallarius) pretending to be leaf litter and hoping I don't see them.

I have called their bluff, and they stalk away to the shade of a nearby tree. Bush thick-knees are silent and elusive during the day but, at night, they emit piercing wails and moans that sound like a crying woman.

A Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys). They are named for their habit of wagging their tails side-to-side while they perch.   *

He swoops for an insect! Wagtails are common, cheery little birds, always in motion.   *

A grey fantail (Rhipidura fulignosa) bathing. Despite all the splashing, you can still make out its distinctive white eyebrow.

A grey fantail on the branch of a lychee tree, from which it has been making speedy aerial forays in search of insects.

A female leaden flycatcher (Myiagra rubecula) ruffling her feathers (that's why she's a bit blurry).

A male rufous whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris) perches in a gum tree to take a break from hunting.

A male satin flycatcher (Myiagra cyanoleuca).

A welcome swallow (Hirundo neoxena) flits under the ceiling of a petrol station in Finch Hatton...

...and, apparently empty-beaked, returns to its perch on a power line.

A Brahminy kite (Milvus indus), a gorgeous chestnut-coloured kite with white head and breast. Apologies for the blurry picture - raptors are not easy to photograph!

Do you see five birds in a row on this power line? They are black kites (Milvus migrans), waiting for their daily handout of chicken necks from our neighbour Val.

I was fortunate to get a close look at one of the black kites as it soared overhead!

A Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides) hovers motionless above a sea cliff. I'm not too confident in my raptor identification so there is some chance this is a brown falcon (Falco berigora). In either case, it was a splendid bird.   *

A galah (Cacatua roseicapilla) in the top of a casuarina tree on a windy day. Sorry about the picture - galahs are normally quite abundant, sometimes flying in flocks of 30 or more, but this week they were shy.

A rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) feeding on grevillea nectar.

Rainbow lorikeets are one of the best-known birds of tropical Australia.

One can never take enough photos of rainbow lorikeets!

A pale-headed rosella (Platycercus adscitus). This bird is the emblem of Central Queensland University. There are an astonishing variety of colourful rosella species.

Speaking of parrots and universities... Here is a sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) walking across the top of a turret on the Main Quad at the University of Sydney.   *

A red-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus magnificus) flaring its crest. It is searching for its favourite food, gum nuts, which it chews open with its massive beak.

An affectionate pair of red-tailed black cockatoos (female on L, male on R; notice the difference in the colour of their tail feathers).

Brush turkeys (Alectura lathami) are a common sight in the forests of Cape Hillsborough. They scratch together huge mounds of leaf litter and dirt to incubate their eggs. They also scratch for food, like overgrown chooks.

A spangled drongo (Dicrurus bracteatus) quenching its thirst. Drongoes are noisy, feisty, acrobatic birds with a harsh raspy chatter punctuated by whistles. Notice the lovely tail that gives it great maneuverability when airborne!

A pheasant coucal (Centropus phasianinus) concealed in a bush. Coucals are in the cuckoo family, but care for their own young.

I have startled the pheasant coucal and it flies clumsily to a tree. They are big birds - up to 80 cm long from beak to tail tip.

A wallaby and her joey grazing on the lawn at Cape Hillsborough Resort.

Oops - we startled the wallaby and off she goes!

A small green praying mantis (~4 cm long) on our kitchen window at night.

A butterfly soaks up the morning sun on the leaf litter of a paperbark forest.

Meet the green ants! These industrious ants (~1 cm long) make football-sized nests in trees by stitching leaves together with silk. They are alert, fearless, and can catch and dismember live grasshoppers. Thank goodness we humans are much, much bigger than them.

We often find large huntsman spiders inside our house and car. This is not actually a huntsman spider, but the cast-off skin of one (~8 cm across).

A mudskipper, a small fish that is partly terrestrial. It can stay on land for many minutes at a time, hopping across the mud with its front fins. If startled it will skip back into the water.

This mudskipper, and the previous one, are about 5 cm long.

A striped skink on our veranda steps. Every morning at breakfast, I go sit on the steps and bask in the sun with the skinks. They have never asked to share my Weet-Bix; they prefer lacewings.

A skink amongst paperbark leaves on the forest floor.

A pink gecko on the wall inside our house. Our geckoes are quite tame and take no notice of us. This one was glad to have his picture taken (though I didn't want to hurt his eyes by using the flash).

There is never a shortage of wildlife at Cape Hillsborough. These three creatures are foraging in the picnic area. (From top: wallaby, bar-shouldered dove, brush turkey.)

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