Suggested Inala Day Trips Departing Melbourne
Around the Melbourne region there is an incredible diversity of birds and habitats including dry woodlands, heath lands, mallee woodlands, coastal and foothill habitats, dense gullies, riparian forest, wet schlerophyll forest.and wetlands.
Whichever of the regions birds you are hoping to see, our specialist birding guides who live and bird in Melbourne, will take you to the best locations and ensure a fantastic day of rich and varied birding.
We are offering several suggestions for excellent day birding & nature tours around the Melbourne area, if none of these suit you then do get in touch for us to craft a day specific to your wishes.
The tours can be combined as a longer tour package of several days and do get in touch if you are interested in longer tours around the state of Victoria
OPTION 1. Mallee and box-ironbark woodlands.
OPTION 2. Coastal Heathlands and Otway Forests.
OPTION 3. Wet Forests.
OPTION 1. Mallee and box-ironbark woodlands.
Your guide Steve Davidson will collect you from your Melbourne Hotel at an agreed time early in the morning.
Birding in the drier woodlands of central Victoria to look for Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Long-billed & Little Corella, Little, Purple-crowned & Musk Lorikeets, Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, and a range of honeyeaters like Yellow-tufted, Fuscous and Black-chinned. En route we look for Laughing Kookaburra, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, White-browed Babbler, Brown Treecreeper, Speckled Warbler, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, Little & Wedge-tailed Eagle, Brown Goshawk and Restless Flycatcher. Further on we reach the extensive Greater Bendigo National Park, a vast area of mallee woodlands, heathy mallee and box-ironbark woodland. Birds we can expect here include Crested Bellbird, Gilbert’s Whistler, Shy Heathwren, Variegated Fairy-Wren, Purple-gaped, Yellow-plumed, Tawny-crowned, Blue-faced, Singing & White-fronted Honeyeaters, Brush & Common Bronzewings, Noisy Friarbird, Red Wattlebird, Chestnut-rumped, Yellow, Buff-rumped & Inland Thornbills, Western Gerygone, Olive-backed Oriole, Crested Shrike-tit, Peaceful Dove, Painted Button-Quail, Black Falcon, Collared Sparrowhawk, Southern Boobook, Hooded, Scarlet & Red-capped Robin, Rainbow Bee-eater, White-browed, Dusky & Masked Woodswallows, Black-eared, Horsfield’s Bronze & Pallid Cuckoos, Red-rumped Parrot, Eastern Rosella and Diamond Firetail. Return to Melbourne late afternoon.
Meals included: Morning & Afternoon Tea + Lunch.
OPTION 2. Coastal Heathlands and Otway Forests.
Your guide Steve Davidson will collect you from your Melbourne Hotel at at an agreed time early in the morning.
Today we head south-west of Melbourne to the start of the famous Great Ocean Road, where we will visit the extensive heathlands of the Anglesea area, both along the coast and inland on the foothills of the Otway Ranges. We will search firstly for the region’s most elusive and secretive species, the Rufous Bristlebird. Other species to be found in this region include Brush Bronzewing, Blue-winged Parrot, Peregrine Falcon, Hooded Plover, Southern Emu-wren, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, Olive Whistler, Pink Robin, Grey Currawong, Spiny-cheeked, Tawny-crowned, Crescent & Singing Honeyeaters, Eastern Curlew, Striated Fieldwren, Satin Bowerbird, Black-faced Cormorant, Kelp & Pacific Gulls, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Pacific Golden Plover and Grey Goshawk. If we are lucky we may see large numbers of recently arrived migratory Short-tailed Shearwater offshore as well as Fluttering Shearwater and Shy Albatross. Return to Melbourne late afternoon.
Meals included: Morning & Afternoon Tea + Lunch.
OPTION 3. Wet Forests.
Your guide Steve Davidson will collect you from your Melbourne Hotel at at an agreed time early in the morning.
We head east of Melbourne and commence birding at a small reserve containing tall stands of Mountain Ash – the largest flowering plant in the world, and a dense gully supporting a small temperate rainforest. The star bird of these forests is undoubtedly the Superb Lyrebird, and we shall endeavour to secure a good sighting of this iconic species. In this location, we should also connect with a few birds that are on the very western edge of their range in Victoria, including Brown Gerygone, Wonga Pigeon and Black-faced Monarch. Also, here we have a good chance of seeing Pilotbird, Large-billed Scrubwren, Satin Flycatcher, and Red-browed Treecreeper. Other birds we are likely to connect with here include Superb Fairy-Wren, Eastern Rosella, Grey Butcherbird, Australian King Parrot, Mistletoebird and Grey Shrike-thrush. The topography and woodland types change as we extend deeper into the Bunyip State Park as do the birds, ranging from foothill woodlands with a heathy understorey that contain species such as Scarlet Robin, Southern Emu-wren, Pallid & Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Crescent, White-eared, New Holland & Brown-headed Honeyeaters, Australian Raven, Rufous Whistler, Grey Currawong and Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo. Further along we reach areas of riparian forest, dry ridge forest and finally wet sclerophyll forest. Birds characteristic of these habitats include Beautiful Firetail, Lewin’s Honeyeater, Brush Cuckoo, Pied Currawong, Eastern Yellow Robin, Eastern Whipbird, Rose Robin, Gang-gang Cockatoo, Rufous Fantail, Cicadabird and Golden Whistler. Return to Melbourne late afternoon.
Meals included: Morning & Afternoon Tea + Lunch.
