Tasmania has a group of birds found nowhere else on earth and winter is an ideal time to go in search of them.
When winter arrives some nature-lovers I know put away the binoculars and go into hibernation, sitting out the colder months to await the arrival of migrants in spring. But sitting by a warm fire – as I admit I’m tempted to do some days when there’s a coating of snow on the mountain – can be a lost opportunity to discover the wonder of the birds that call Tasmania home.
The state, in fact, has 12 endemic species and winter, when the generally louder and more aggressive migrants are back on the mainland, presents the best opportunity to find them.
These dozen birds make Tasmania an international and national birding hotspot and they include one of the rarest birds on earth, the forty-spotted pardalote.
In relation to its size, Tasmania has more endemic species than anywhere else in Australia. To put that in perspective, Victoria has none and New South Wales only one.
Even species that might also be found on the mainland have sub-species here markedly different to those over Bass Strait. The wedge-tailed eagle in Tasmania is more rufous in colour and bigger than the mainland one, making it the fourth largest eagle in the world.
An ideal winter walk to discover Tasmanian birds is the Pipeline Track extending from Romilly St in South Hobart to Fern Tree and beyond, via the Waterworks Reserve and Gentle Annie Falls.
The first stretch of the track to the reserve is clothed in thick, stringybark forest which provides homes to all four of the honeyeaters exclusive to Tasmania, the most common in this location bordering suburbia being the largest member of the family, the yellow wattlebird. The bird is so named because of the yellow-orange wattles that hang from its face.
Other family members to be found on this lower trail are the black-headed and strong-billed honeyeaters, along with yellow-throated honeyeaters.
At the reserve itself, in the drier blue gum and peppermint gum forests on its eastern side, Tasmania’s only native robin appears. Unlike the other three robins – the scarlet, flame and pink robins, which can also be seen on the mainland – the dusky robin does not have red or pink on the breast and is generally grey-brown in colour, hence its name.
Also in the reserve is Tasmania’s only resident parrot, the green rosella, along with a surprising number of Tasmanian native-hens.
Climbing above Gentle Annie Falls, on the way to Fern Tree, birds associated with wet forests emerge – Tasmanian thornbills, scrubwrens and scrubtits.
And here a largely alpine species, the mountain jay or black currawong, is forced to accept the harsh reality of winter like stay-at-home birders. In the coldest months, they come down from the snow-capped mountain to warmer areas closer to Hobart.