Australia has quite a number of native pigeons, but none of them quite match the Wonga Pigeon, Leucosarcia melanoleuca.

The photo doesn’t really do it justice: the Wonga is a seriously large amount of pigeon.

Source: Glen Fergus, O’Reillys Guest House, Queensland

While quite shy, the Wonga pigeon is a ground-forager. Around Bunjaree Cottages, early risers can get lucky and surprise a Wonga Pigeon around their cottages.

If the pigeon sees or hears someone, it will leave as quickly as possible, and here you will get your second treat: its takeoff is noisy and rather ungainly because they’re so heavy by pigeon standards. The wing-clapping noise is quite impressive.

The Superb Lyrebird is almost a mascot of the Blue Mountains: it only takes a little good fortune (and a watchful eye) to spot lyrebirds on a bushwalk. And we feel incredibly lucky to have Lyrebirds living around Bunjaree Cottages.

They are very shy, but can sometimes be spotted in the early morning, moving between feeding spots and crossing the driveway. Lyrebirds feed by scratching around the leaf-litter for insects and spiders, and leave quite distinctive scratchings.

Superb Lyrebird. Author: Attis. Source: Wikimedia

We’re more likely to hear the Lyrebirds than to see them. They mimic a huge variety of sounds, but are particularly fond of putting whip-bird songs into their repertoire. I was so pleased with this recording of a Lyrebird (taken on my phone) that I use it as my ringtone!

Bushwalks where we have spotted Lyrebirds include the Prince Henry Cliff Walk, which runs between Leura and Katoomba; between the Three Sisters and Scenic World; and around Katoomba Falls.

Here’s another Lyrebird performance I recorded. First it has a dog bark, then it imitates the owner (“Yoo-Hoo!”), and then it kind of riffs on other birds. “Yoo-hoo Lyerbird”

We can’t guarantee that you’ll see every one of the 30 or more species of birds that frequent the bush around Bunjaree Cottages – some are shy, some are rare, and some are nocturnal. But we can absolutely guarantee that visitors will see Crimson Rosellas – Platycercus Elegans – because there are several families living here.

Image: Richard at Bunjaree Cottages

These beautiful birds love visiting the feeders at our cottages, and will stay around for several hours on any given day.

Apart from their looks, the Crimson Rosella is notable for its variety of calls. There are sounds that you will recognize as normal for parrots – the chattering when they’re around the feeders; a loud, short screech in flight; but most astonishing is the beautiful bell-like “family call” when they are perched in a tree and calling to their family. It’s a two-note, high pitched “who-he-whoo” (low-high-low) that seems to mean either “here I am”, “where are you?”, or “come here, there’s food!”

They’re also extremely agile in flight. We’re constantly amazed at the way they can streak through dense bush at high speed – it’s really something to see!