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it wasn t until the 1800s that the appellation bird of paradise was adopted and the name manucode came to be assigned to arguably the most boring representative of the family so being a uniform iridescent black colour you might ask why is the trumpet manucode boring when compared to other bird of paradise well you may not have asked this question but i have trumpet manucodes are sexually monomorphic i e both sexes are similar in appearance this is unusual in the bird of paradise family this feature is linked to the fact that trumpet manucodes are monogamous as a consequence there is no need for the elaborate looks and behavior of some of the other more strikingly coloured birds of paradise with colours dominated by yellow orange and blue green the yellow billed kingfisher is so different from other australian kingfishers despite its colour it can be hard to locate so like a lot of rainforest birds it is best located by its call a loud musical trill that is unlike any of the other australian kingfishers they can sit still under the canopy for a long time sometimes a very long time for instance i remember the first time i saw a yellow billed kingfisher out of the corner of my eye i had noticed a bird fly into a tree out and was pretty sure it was the kingfisher so my technique for seeing it was to simply wait under that tree until it flies out after what seemed like hours a yellow billed kingfisher flew out of the tree bingo lifer pie trumpet manucode feeding in northern laurel a tricky bird to track down it is best follow for their loud trumpet like call another bird to look for here is the magnificent magnificent riflebird they are velvety black bird of paradise with a large iridescent almost turquoise coloured triangle shaped breast shield this look is probably how they got the name riflebird because they resembled the colours of the british rifle brigade they are usually quite high in the canopy and easily the best way to find them is by their call it makes an extremely loud wee ee oop or wep weep likened to wolf whistle that reverberates through the rainforest it s a call that contrasts markedly with the rasping calls of the paradise and victoria s riflebirds the most often seen view of the magnificent riflebird is of it darting across the road from one section of rainforest to another other birds to look for in the rainforest near the camp grounds include papuan eclectus and red cheeked parrot double eyed marshall s fig parrot wompoo rose crowned and superb fruit dove chestnut breasted cuckoo spangled drongo yellow breasted boatbill spectacled frill necked and white eared monarch tropical scrubwren rufous shrike thrush rufous fantail tawny breasted honeyeater grey whistler black winged monarch summer oriental cuckoo and white faced robin so this area of rainforest is a good spot while most of the rainforest birds are best seen near the edges white faced robin seems to prefer the denser habitat inside the rainforest i have found walking along the very beginning of the old coen track at the rainforest campground the section the claudie river is a good spot for them often perch on the side of a tree or vine as robins generally do dropping to the ground to snap up an insect or two they are usually quiet so it is worth moving slowly along the rainforest tracks to see them they also occur along the small track leading north behind the cooks hut campground one of these tracks leads to the toilet block white faced robin clinging to a vine another bird you sometime see behind the cooks hut campground is norther scrub robin they are best seen by entering the gallery rainforest and search for movement on the ground in summer this area is also good for south papuan pitta feeding in the leaf litter i have camped at both gordan creek and cooks hut campsites and on both occasions there were several spotted cuscus in the trees bordering the campsite they seem particularly numerous at cooks hunt and you can occasionally see them in the middle of the day in the larger trees in the campsite itself with their flat face forward looking eyes and tiny ears spotted cuscus give me the impression of being a monkey however in terms of their movement they are more like a sloth being australia s slowest possum typically solitary it is worth noting that only the male has spots the southern common cuscus which is also found in iron range lowland rainforests is similar but distinguished by the dark strip that runs down its back the gordon creek campsites are bordered by riverine rainforest white faced robin can be a campground bird frequently clinging sideways on tree trunks as robins tend to do in the afternoon this campsite proved to be a good place for green backed honeyeater most often seen as a single bird nearly all of the australian observations of green backed honeyeater are made in the rainforests of iron range the campsite is also a good spot for yellow legged flyrobin an uncommon species they are often located by their distinctive calls a short five second trill somewhat like the trilling call of the yellow billed kingfisher they seem to prefer the margins of the rainforest always gorgeous rose crowned fruit dove around the campground you should also see a few australian brush turkeys as they hassle each other and any orange footed megapod scrubfowl that gets in their way the australian brush turkey here are the violet wattled subspecies purpureicollis the nominate subspecies lathami further south has a bright yellow wattle there is a nice little walk at the campground that leads down to the creek a good spot for chestnut breasted cuckoo trumpet manucode white faced robin frilled necked monarch and tropical scrubwren double eyed fig parrot are sometimes seen feeding in fig trees further down portland rd just after the gordan creek bridge this bridge like the west claudie river bridge is a good place to just hang out and birdwatch for example from the bridge i have seen yellow billed kingfisher red cheeked and papuan eclectus parrot black eared catbird magnificent riflebird yellow breasted boatbill yellow legged flyrobin and green backed and tawny breasted honeyeater tawny breasted honeyeater are a quite a large honeyeater with a large downcurved bill to me the tawny breasted honeyeater call sounds like the rusty bicycle wheel call of the large billed gerygone at night spotlighting the road between rainforest cooks hut and gordon creek campgrounds is probably the best way site for marbled frogmouth large billed nightjar and rufous owl and there is a chance of red necked crake with one calling while i was spotlighting the last trip i made there when spotlighting along portland rd look for nocturnal rainforest mammals i have seen spotted cuscus giant white tailed rat and cape york melomys while if you are lucky sothern common cuscus not that common stiped possum and long nosed echymipera formerly the rufous spiny bandicoot cape york rat and cinammon antechinus are all possible the likely bats around along portland road are eastern horseshoe bat fawn leaf nosed bat and large eared horseshoe bat spotted cuscus i have seen them on most trips to iron range cinnamon antechinus is another mammal of the mesophyll rainforest of iron range they breed in september when the males become active looking for a mate they extend their activities into the day which is when you might see them scurrying across a road after continually trying to mate for over a month the males become exhausted and by mid october all the males are dead so after that only female antechinus exist until they give birth to their first litters in late october and november that is such an interesting life history the bare backed fruit bat and the much smaller fawn leaf nosed bat are among the common bats you will see along portland rd you can distinguish the bare backed fruit bat due to the distinctive flapping noise they make as they hover in mid air there is also a chance of some good reptiles such as green tree python a spectacular looking python whose australian distribution is essentially limited to the rainforests of iron range the adults are a vivid emerald green while hatchings to around the age of 1 year are yellow or brick red they are sometimes colloquially called green gold because they are very hard to find so for herpers reptile enthusiasts finding one is like finding gold you might also see scrub amethystine python it can reach 5 metres in length northern tree snake fast and agile snake and one of the more common snakes in the rainforest brown headed snake slaty grey snake northern carpet python spotted python they re the ones that hang out near near caves hunting bats in mid flight and black headed snake who eat other snakes including the venomous ones another very special reptile of iron range is the canopy goanna found nowhere else in the world living in the rainforest it uses its tail like a spider monkey curling it around a branch of a tree like a fifth limb it has a very restricted range of possibly less than one hundred square kilometres first described as a species in 1985 there seems to be little information on this monitor so could possibly do with a bit more research also look for spotted tree monitor yellow spotted monitor and giant tree gecko the latter distributions are limited to northern cape york the extraordinary canopy goanna found nowhere else in the world it uses its tail like a spider monkey curling it around a branch like a fifth limb very little seems to have been written about them so some young scientist should get up there and research it photo steve potter another good area of habitat is along the track going down to the claudie river at the rainforest campground this is the eastern end of the old coen track white faced robin occurs along this track as do pacific emerald dove and the river is to be a good place to see frilled necked monarch red cheeked parrot and papuan eclectus parrot it is also a good spot for black eared catbird they are notoriously difficult to see outside of the summer period remaining silent and often feeding high in the rainforest canopy here s a bit of an aside once i camped at the cooks hut with two clients they were a couple she was an american doctor from new york and great fun while he was a well known costa rican bird guide they had specifically asked to camp for a few days in iron range so i packed a couple of small tents some sleeping bags etc once we arrived at cooks hut i got the tents out of the car and said here s your tent if you need any help please let me know he the costa rican bird guide looked down at the tent looked up at me and then kicked the tent saying what the f k is this naturally i was a bit surprised by this i assumed a costa rican bird guide would know what camping is apparently not his idea of camping was what we would call glamping quite common in costa rica he assumed there would be a cabin like tent accompanied by a cook providing our food and a nice cold bottle of champagne on ice i ve slightly exaggerated the champagne bit but you get the picture eventually he settled down and i set up his tent needless to say we did not camp again he was in fact quite a nice guy and good birder but had a habit of losing it a bit something his wife had actually warned me about before the beginning of the trip indeed she said they couldn t do group tours because he d always get in a fight with the other clients at the end of the trip as a present he gave me a large bag of costa rican coffee that came from his local village his wife was amazed he s never done anything like that before so i must have done something right gordon creek the first place i camped in iron range was at gordon creek and is one of my personal favourite spots for birding old coen track eastern end around 5 kilometres in length the old coen track starts at the rainforest camping area heading west towards until it ends up at the site mentioned below about 200 metres down the track you come to a spot that you will need to cross the claudie river here you can either take your shoes off and wade across it s only about 15 metres through shallow water or you can see if you get across via a fallen tree or two i tend to walk a kilometre or two along the track and then head back you can do the same thing from the other western end the track takes you through some nice lowland rainforest and dry eucalypt woodland it is a pleasant well marked track don t forget to take water and pretty birdy in places so it is worth doing if you have time it s a good spot for papuan eclectus parrot who like the trees along the path as well as red cheeked parrot pacific emerald dove northern scrub robin yellow legged fly robin green backed honeyeater grey whistler magnificent riflebird yellow billed kingfisher lovely fairy wren and in summer black winged monarch a lovely lovely fairy wren they mainly inhabit edges of rainforest and the most arboreal of the fairy wrens i have seen them as far up a tree as 20 metres old coen track western entrance and along portland rd here another good area of edge habitat is along the western end of the old coen track a walk west along the old coen track is also worth doing with most of the rainforest species possible along here as mentioned the habitat is a nice mix of open woodlands and lowland rainforest it is 5 kilometres one way i have found it good for the black eared catbird the fruit doves wompoo superb and rose crowed chestnut breasted cuckoo tropical scrubwren white eared and frilled necked monarch and white faced robin a focal point of walking this track used to be the smuggler s tree a large green fig ficus albipila tree that was an important breeding tree for papuan eclectus parrots its name is derived from the fact it used to be raided by bird traders for nestlings in the 1950s unfortunately it has since fallen down it used to be an incredibly majestic tree robert heinsohn one of the first researchers into papuan eclectus parrot behaviour wrote about the smuggler s tree as such in its various hollows it supported 17 eclectus parrots distributed among three different breeding groups two pairs of sulphur crested cockatoos and roosting cavities for bats inside its trunk its crown is decorated with a magnificent colony of metallic starling with their multitude of nests that hang from the upper branches preying on all these creatures is a resident pair of grey goshawks and a large slaty grey snake haunts the ground below waiting for the starling chicks to fall when they are all at home the 12 male and five female eclectus parrots light up the branches like a christmas tree it is such a shame the smuggler s tree isn t still standing as part of robert heinsohn s research he found that female papuan eclectus parrots refuse to leave their breeding hollow even after their chicks have fully fledged and left the nest they will return every day to make sure that no intruders have usurped it they defend the hollow fr...