A WEEK IN THE TERRITORY AND JUST SEVEN SUBSPECIES TO FIND

After my 100% success on Melville Island, I arrived back in Darwin expecting the same in the Territory. I'm not sure how many times I've been to the Northern Territory. I do know that my first visit was in 1982, when Rog and I drove from Perth to Darwin - a memorable trip. I know we visited Alice Springs some time last century. I know I failed to see a White-throated Grasswren in 2009, but I did see a Swinhoe's Snipe in 2022 and a Northern Shriketit in 2023, and I did a Central Australia tour with Bellbird in 2025. I'm sure there have been other trips too. Despite all these trips, and notwithstanding the three mainland subspecies I'd seen on Melville, there were still another seven subspecies found in the Northern Territory that I had never seen. I had seven days. Surely I could see seven birds! What I didn't consider was that these were probably the Territory's hardest birds, given that I hadn't seen them on any previous visit. First, I looked for the King Quail. It has been seen in several spots, but never regularly or frequently.

I wandered through appropriate grassy habitat at Holmes Jungle for what seemed like hours. I looked at Knuckey's Lagoons for quite some time too. Here I did pick up a Singing Bush Lark, race solderbergi. There are nine subspecies of Singing Bush Lark in Australia. Now I have seen seven of them. But, I did not glimpse a King Quail. I started the next day again looking for King Quail, but I confess, they defeated me. On to Kakadu, where I had a cabin at Jabiru. I could hardly wait until it was dark and I could look for Australian Masked Owl. Because I'd seen the Tiwi Masked Owl relatively easily, and because I'd always expected the Kakadu bird to be easier than the Melville Island one, I expected to get this. However, it was not to be. It was a warm night and there were several snakes about. Also, lots of various bats and one large legless lizard. But no Masked Owls. I had reluctantly decided that I probably couldn't get to the spot where Yellow Chat (race tunneyi) is seen, so my seven target subspecies was reduced to three. I did give the owl one last chance, but he simply wasn't interested in showing himself. I had great hopes for a White-quilled Rock Pigeon up the Escarpment Walk in Gregory National Park, and there were still two fairywrens I was hoping for. Still in Kakadu, I clambered up Nourlangie Rock very early the next morning, hoping for a Purple-backed Fairywren. This is race dulcis, sometimes called the Lavender-flanked Fairywren. I had a most engaging encounter with a Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon, and informed him that I had an appointment with his white-quilled cousin in a couple of days' time. But the arduous climb up the rocks was for nothing. As soon as I returned back down the track, there was a fairywren in the foliage. Yes, it was my Lavender-flanked! At least I'd seen two of my seven. I thought the female looked very like a female Lovely Fairywren, which (shame on me for not knowing!) I hadn't been expecting. Here's me looking for Purple-backed Fairywren.

I enjoyed a very pleasant walk around Anabangbang Billabong, which would have been better had the track not been pock marked by water buffalo. The next morning, we had an early start, and saw our only Northern Bandicoot and an orange bat in the dark. Our destination was Victoria River. I was going to attempt the Escarpment Walk at Gregory National Park, in the hope of seeing my White-quilled Rock Pigeon. And attempt it I did. But I'm afraid I didn't make it. Somehow, with help, I got to the first ridge line. I heard Pheasant Coucals making their 'whoop, whoop, whoop' call, but there were few birds to distract me from what I thought was vertical rock climbing. I did not enjoy it. And there were no rock pigeons.

So I dipped on the quail, the owl and the rock pigeon and had given up on the chat. My only successes were the Singing Bush Lark and the Lavender-flanked Fairywren. I was feeling a tad disappointed. However, I did add Purple-crowned Fairywren race coronatus to my list, very easily at Victoria River Crossing. There is a large sign there illustrating the fairywren, so it is obviously a reliable spot for them.

On the way back to Darwin the next day, I saw Hooded Parrots at Pine Creek and two beautiful Rainbow Pitta at Adelaide River. I'm pleased to report that I came home celebrating my Melville Island success, and tried to forget my dismal record in the Territory.

MELVILLE ISLAND

Melville Island does not spring to mind as one of Australia's premier birding sites. It doesn't even feature as a major Northern Territory site. And yet I've just enjoyed a few days of most rewarding birding there. I came home with 83 species on my Melville Island list. In fact, there are nine subspecies you cannot find anywhere else in the world. That's what I went there to see. And I saw them all.

I flew to Darwin on Saturday, took the ferry to Melville Island on Sunday, then the bus to Milikapiti where I was staying, arriving at 2.30. Even in August, it's too hot for birding in the middle of the day, but later that afternoon I ticked seven of the nine endemic subspecies. That night I went looking for the Tiwi Masked Owl, but didn't see it. The next day I saw the last diurnal subspecies and that night (much to my surprise) I saw the owl. All nine subspecies in less than 36 hours! I also picked up three other Northern Territory subspecies, not exclusive to the Tiwi Islands, that I'd never seen before. To my eye, most of the subspecies didn't look any different from their mainland counterparts. The order I saw the birds in was: (1) Brown Honeyeater - common, easily seen; (2) White-bellied Cuckooshrike - also very numerous and easily seen; (3) Yellow-tinted Honeyeater, not quite so common, I didn't see it every day I was on the island, yet I saw it easily and it looked like our mainland Yellow-tinted; (4) Striated Pardalote - vocal and easily seen, but visibly different with black on its face, altogether very colourful with a very stubby bill; (5) Green Oriole - loud and obvious (but there were also plenty of Olive-backed Orioles), it looked like other Green Orioles to me; (6) Rufous Whistler - male looked and sounded the same as mainland birds, but the female was very different: more colourful underparts with many fewer striations, very light streaking on her throat only. The last diurnal passerine (7) the Singing Bush Lark was easily seen, but not widespread, and looked quite indistinguishable from other bush larks to me. This is Bush Lark terrain.

After one night looking unsuccessfully for the owl, I didn't really expect to see it on the second night. But there it was! Unfortunately, it didn't hang around to have its photo taken. There were lots of birds on Melville, but there were only three species that I saw every day of my five day stay. They were: Bar-shouldered Dove, Whistling Kite and Torresian Crow. After Melville Island, I turned my mind to the mainland where I hoped to pick up a further seven subspecies new to me. I'd seen Helmeted Friarbird, Singing Honeyeater and the Silver-backed Butcherbird already on Melville. I wasn't quite so lucky on the mainland.