Home to more than one-third of Australia’s avian species, Kakadu National Park is a bird-lover’s paradise, and Kakadu Bird Week is now attracting an annual migration of twitchers to this Top End treasure.
This far-flung national park in the heart of the Northern Territory is brimming with serene waterholes, rich cultural history and arid-zone birds.
The NT’s Palm Valley was long thought to have been a surviving relict of Australia’s prehistoric rainforests, but we now know its trees arrived much more recently with Aboriginal horticulturalists.
In October 2016, Australian Geographic travelled to the Top End for Kakadu Bird Week, when twitchers from around Australia flock to this bird-watching paradise – home to a third of the country’s bird species – for a specialised program of bird-watching tours and activities. Read more about Kakadu Bird Week 2016 in AG#136, out now.
A majestic ghost gum stands alone at sunset, 40km west of Alice Springs.
Rainbow bee eater (Merops ornatus) perched on a branch above the Injaidan rockhole in Iytwelepenty-Davenport Ranges National Park, Northern Territory.
Sandstone pandanus (Pandanus basedowii), Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory.
Step into Iytwelepenty-Davenport Ranges National Park, NT, a secret oasis of birds and waterholes like none other.
A lemon bellied flycatcher poses for his portrait in Fogg Dam, Northern Territory.