The Best Bird Watching Spots In Moreton Bay

Calling all bird watching aficionados in Moreton Bay – we’ve got the best spots and the region’s most beautiful birdlife sussed out for you!

If you are a keen bird watcher, birder, or twitcher, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Whether you’re a senior enjoying your retirement or you just love to go out on the weekends with the kids, bird watching is a truly magical way to spend a day. At these stunning spots in the Moreton Bay Region, you’re sure to see birdlife that will keep you coming back year after year. Read on to find out more!

For the best in bird watching in Moreton Bay, Visit Moreton Bay Region has all the top spots! Read on to find out more.

Never mind mum – the bird’s the word!

When it comes to bird watching in Moreton Bay, two main areas stand head and shoulders above the rest – Bribie Island and Redcliffe. Both offer stunning coastal and wetland habitats for birdlife, and make for truly amazing bird watching sites. Mind you keep mum on these locations though, or every bird watcher in South East Queensland will be right there with you!

Bribie Island

Beautiful Bribie Island is a wildlife sanctuary, and is host to two main bird watching sites – Buckley’s Hole, at Bongaree, and Red Beach, just to the south.

Buckley’s Hole is renowned amongst locals for its beautiful wildlife. Situated right alongside the Bongaree waterfront, the pond is a nesting site and breeding ground for a host of native and international shorebirds and waders.

Red Beach at the very tip of the island, just past Buckley’s Hole, is also a stunning spot for bird watching. In the lowland forest that surrounds the beach, a symphony of bird song announces the arrival of some of the region’s most unique birds. Birds like the Fairy Grey gone and the Superb Fruit-Dove have been spotted there.

Redcliffe

Redcliffe also offers coastal habitats to some of South East Queensland’s most beautiful birds. Two areas stand out in Redcliffe for bird watching – Scarborough and Woody Point.

Scarborough offers several different locations and habitats for the avid bird watcher including: the mud flats that line the southern edge of Deception Bay, the mangroves that run alongside Endeavour and Oyster Point Esplanades, the marina and the boat harbour, and, finally, the curved spit of North Reef. Coastal birds flock to these areas, and they’re truly a delight to watch. You can also see a variety of native birds along the coastline from Castlereagh Point to Osbourne Point.

At Woody Point, a rocky reef forms from the end of the beach to the jetty, and on to Picnic Point. The sand that is dumped on this reef outside the Yacht Club has encouraged Ruddy Turnstone, a local favourite amongst bird watchers, to the area. Definitely add that one to your list!

Birds of a feather

Moreton Bay is home to thousands of birds and dozens of different species. Pumicestone Passage alone hosts some 1500 shorebirds of 11 species, with nearly 20,000 migratory shorebirds of 24 different species visiting Bribie Island each year. This makes the Moreton Bay area uniquely important to birdlife and the people who love to observe them.

Just a few of the species that call Moreton Bay home include:

  • Red-Necked Skint
  • Eastern Curlew
  • Double-Branded Plover
  • Brush-stone Curlew
  • Australian Pied Oyster-catcher
  • Masked Lapwing
  • Grey-tailed tattler
  • Sooty oyster-catcher
  • Terek sandpiper
  • Red-necked Avocet

What a treat to find all these, and more, on a bird watching visit to the Moreton Bay region!

Queensland Poultry and Bird Museum

It may not be a place to relax and go bird watching, but it is a place to go to learn about the history of poultry and birds in Queensland!

Located with the Caboolture Historical Village, the four-roomed museum offers a unique glimpse into the history and significance of poultry and birds in Queensland and pays tribute to the role poultry birds played in Queensland from the late 1800s until today.

Did you know that the Queensland Poultry and Bird Museum is also believed to be the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere?

Looking for many animal encounter adventures?

Woorim Ocean Beach | Bribie Island

Platypus Encounters in the Moreton Bay Region

Osprey House Environmental Centre

Hashtag your next wildlife adventure on Insta #visitmoretonbayregion or tag us @visitmoretonbayregion on Facebook!

Looking for more camping hot spots? Pop into one of the region's Accredited Visitor Information Centres, the volunteers have a wealth of knowledge about things to do and see in the Moreton Bay Region

AUTHOR

Contribution Dana Flannery at Talk About Creative. Talk About Creative provide copywriting services to businesses in the Moreton Bay Region

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Acknowledgement of Country - We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waterways of the Moreton Bay Region, the Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi, Jinibara, and Turrbal people and pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging. We recognise the ongoing connection that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to this land and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the original custodians of this land.