It’s time to discover the birds of the Great Ocean Road. This iconic destination is abundant with native Australian wildlife. You can see kangaroos, koalas and wallabies. But what surprises many visitors is the array of beautiful, colourful, native birds.
Sometimes you see a flash of colour at the road side as you’re driving. Or if you pull over in the seaside towns, you’ll no doubt spot them in the trees above you. Here’s a few of our favourites that we’ve seen while out on tour.
Cockatoos
These large white parrots are usually found in groups. They can be distinguished by the yellow (sulphur) crest on their heads. They often forage on the ground for seeds, nuts and roots. However a few members of the group will be perched in the trees nearby to keep an eye out for danger. They have a very loud a raucous call, which can be heard from a distance or can be almost deafening up close.
King Parrots
The red and green King Parrots prefer to live in dense forests. They fly low through the tree trunks so they are very good at ducking and weaving to avoid obstacles. Both males and females have a red belly and green back, wings and tails. What distinguishes them is the head and breast – for the males these are red and for females these are green.
Crimson Rosellas
Crimson Rosella are typically easy to spot with their deep blue and red feathers. If you look closely you might spot some with a slightly different plumage – the younger birds start out with olive green feathers mixed into the red and blue, before they develop their adult feathers. The Rosella nest in hollows in the trees and eat seeds, insects and some tree blossoms.
Join us on an Otway Discovery Tour of the Great Ocean Road to see these beautiful birds for yourself.