Bird Watching in Tenterfield

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The township of Tenterfield has a wide variety of habitats such as riparian (albeit in poor condition), open woodland, open grassland created by farming usage, agricultural and parkland.

Geographically the Tenterfield township is situated within a bowl with hills on three of it's sides, including MT. MacKenzie to the south-west. This unusual bowl shaped landscape creates the most unusual echoeings that can be heard at least 4kms away.

VIDEO OF A DOG BARKING AT NIGHT You'll hear the echo but you may want to turn your speakers up. The echoes bounce off the hills and create an echo identical to the first one.

The Tenterfield Creek travels Tenterfield mostly the west side of the town starting in the south-west corner, then crosses to the east at the north end of town. Tenterfield is on the western edge of the Great Dividing Range. Within this area are many habitats ranging from dry eucalypt woodland mostly as well as open bodies of water like Tenterfield Dam, and the Tenterfield Creek.

This diversity of habitats attracts a large range of bird species within a relatively small area and offers great bird watching opportunities. Within the Tenterfield area over 100 bird species have been recorded including the only endemic unrecorded new species which is yet to be confirmed:

A bird that looks similiar in shape and size to a Satin Bowerbird but has an olive coloured back, it's underside from tail to throat is completely white, and it's wings are all an aqua blue colour. In flight this bird is observed as a white bird with entirely aqua blue wings.

This species is only spotted in Tenterfield but the last reported sighting of this species was on Saturday, 8th September 2012 with only one individual bird observed in flight. Previous sightings of this species occurred during 1996-2001 showed at least 10 individuals. These birds has since disappeared from Tenterfield but hopefully have moved into a new area rather than became extinct.

Australia has 726 bird species and one hundred of these, at least, have been recorded in Tenterfield itself over the years, quite a significant number considering there are only 9,000 species of birds living on the earth. Within a ten kilometre radius of Tenterfield about two hundred and fifty bird species have been recorded, making this area without a doubt a goldmine for bird watching in Australia. Amongst these are some of Australia’s most spectacular parrots including the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Australian King Parrot, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Crimson Rosella, Eastern Rosella and the elusive Satin Bowerbird.

For a complete list of all birds in the Tenterfield township and immediate area please check out this page.