In the past nine months I have done a lot of birdwatching here, and one thing I've noticed is that the birds are always changing. Morning and evening are the best times to watch, though a great diversity of birds (and bats!) can be seen all day long. First-time visitors to the park might go for breakfast at the Cafe, then pick up the bird-watching guide at the brochure rack next to the coffee kiosk before starting on a morning of birding. The brochure includes a checklist of commonly seen species, with pictures, and it's a good place to start if you aren't familiar with the local species.
The parklands also maintains a Birdwatching website with information about birdwatching breakfast tours (only $25!) and volunteer opportunities (including bird-spotting), as well as an active blog with great posts about birds. I have never done a birdwatching tour in Centennial Park, but my experience is a lot like the one described in this blog post. I'm still an amateur, and I don't have any of the equipment a birdwatcher might use, so I think a birdwatching tour like this is in my future.
My Centennial Park bird list includes the following species:
- Australian Magpie
- Australian Raven
- Australian White Ibis
- Black Swan
- Common Myna
- Crested Pigeon
- Domestic Goose
- Dusky Moorhen
- Eurasian Coot
- Grey Teal
- Hardhead Duck
- Little Black Cormorant
- Little Corella
- Long-billed Corella
- Magpie-lark
- Masked Lapwing
- Noisy Miner
- Pacific Black Duck
- Pied Currawong
- Purple Swamphen
- Rainbow Lorikeet
- Rock Dove
- Royal Spoonbill
- Silver Gull
- Sulfur-crested Cockatoo
- Welcome Swallow
- White-faced Heron
- Willie Wagtail
And even with this list of nearly 30 species, I still have a ways to go. The park has such a wide range of habitats - from lakes, to swamps, to forest - that you can tick off quite a wide diversity of species in one short visit.
A pair of Little Corellas in a tree
Centennial Park is a great place to see water birds. In this shot I captured Silver Gulls, a Dusky Moorhen (left), a Purple Swamphen (right), and a Eurasian Coot (in the water)
The ones I love most are the ones listed in red, which are commonly spotted waders / water birds. While I see the swans, ducks, geese, ibises, coots, moorhens and swamphens on a regular basis in the park, the spoonbills, herons, masked lapwings, and cormorants are a little harder to spot. I sometimes see masked lapwings in mud flats near other birds. The little cormorants can be spotted swimming in the water, diving then resurfacing at a great distance away; or flying quickly across the water. For the heron and spoonbill, look near the shore in the tall grasses and shallow water, in areas away from people.
Pacific Black Ducks, with a Little Black Cormorant swimming by
White-faced heron near the shore
Royal Spoonbill wading on the lake's edge
