Pack your binoculars and camera and have a guide to Australian birds at the ready as you roam across New South Wales on a birdwatching odyssey. From the twitcher’s paradise of Lord Howe Island to the desert landscapes of the outback, you’ll find an extraordinary variety of birdlife across the state. 

Meet the birds of Sydney

You don’t need to leave Sydney to find thriving communities of birds – the city centre is alive with all kinds of avian wildlife, from sulphur-crested cockatoos screeching and wheeling overhead in the harbourside Royal Botanic Garden and the Domain to lorikeets and kookaburras in countless nature reserves and parks.

Have your binoculars or camera at the ready as you enter the extensive Centennial Parklands, a few minutes by car or bus from the city centre, to view some of the 120-plus species of birds found here, including galahs, rosellas, corellas and cockatoos. Take on the parkland’s bird-spotting challenge by heading to one of its popular birdwatching locations.

More than a quarter of Australia’s bird species have been recorded within the expansive grounds of Sydney Olympic Park, less than 30 minutes’ drive from the city centre. Observe Australian native waterbirds and seasonal migrants such as Latham’s snipe at the park’s waterbird reserves. Settle in for prime viewing at the Waterbird Refuge Bird Hide, and join a free guided bird walk with volunteers from Sydney Olympic Park’s BirdLife Australia Discovery Centre on the last Sunday of the month.

Follow the cliffside Cape Baily walking track in the Kurnell section of Kamay Botany Bay National Park, in Sydney’s south, to encounter tiny native wrens, finches and silvereyes flitting through the scrub. This coastal trail continues on to Boat Harbour Aquatic Reserve, home to endangered sooty oystercatchers and migratory waders.

Venture beyond the city’s boundaries to explore avian hotspots like the Royal National Park with the expert birders on an expedition with Aussie Bird Tours, Birding Sydney and Beyond or Inala Nature’s Sydney Birding Tours.

Fly to a seabird sanctuary

The only significant breeding ground for providence petrels and the home of one of the world’s largest colonies of red-tailed tropicbirds, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island, a two-hour flight from Sydney, is truly Australia’s premier birdwatching destination. 

Alongside Lord Howe’s 450-plus fish species and 90 species of coral, nearly 170 species of sea and land birds either live on the Pacific Ocean island or visit throughout the year. Take a Ball’s Pyramid & Around Island Guided Tour with Jack Shick’s Sea to Summit Expeditions to encounter all kinds of seabirds as you circle the island by boat – visit Jack’s online resource, Lord Howe Island Birds, to bone up on what you might see during this experience. 

Or take Lord Howe Island Nature Tours’ Birdwatching Day Trip with naturalist and photographer Ian Hutton to seek out black noddies, sooty terns and grey ternlets, to name a few of the island’s many avian species. 

Discover wetlands wonders

The coastline north of Sydney makes for great birdwatching. Encounter a variety of woodland birds and shorebirds – from whistlers to fairy-wrens and yellow thornbills – in Lake Macquarie’s Belmont Wetlands State Park on your way to Hunter Wetlands National Park, which extends from the outskirts of the port city of Newcastle to Port Stephens. 

More than 200 species of birds live in this national park, or migrate through it, including plovers, oystercatchers and curlews in the Stockton section, 18 species of raptors and the endangered black-necked stork (Australia’s only stork). Spark a lifetime passion by booking your kids into the park’s seasonal Junior ranger: Shorebirds and mangroves program. 

Outside of the boundaries of Hunter Wetlands National Park, stop in at the community-run Hunter Wetlands Centre or visit the Seaham Swamp Bird Hide at the Seaham Swamp Nature Reserve for great waterbird spotting all year round. 

Two hours further north, the valleys surrounding the coastal city of Port Macquarie are home to nearly 300 bird species. Download the Hastings Valley birdwatching guide and spend a blissful day pressing binoculars to your eyes, before bedding down at Diamond Waters Treehouse Retreat – more than 150 avian species live on the revegetated property, hidden away on the Camden Haven River. 

Drive north for hinterland birdlife 

Beyond Port Macquarie a string of North Coast wildlife hotspots awaits. Keep a lookout for satin bowerbirds, superb lyrebirds, the secretive Bassian thrush and about 150 other bird species while following the Walk with the Birds boardwalk in Dorrigo National Park, a two-hour drive from Port Macquarie or an hour from the beachside resorts of Coffs Harbour. 

In the Byron Bay hinterland, join Vision Walks’ Byron Bay Wildlife Safari to encounter tiny wrens and robins, native hens and waders as well as iconic Australian birds such as kookaburras, magpies and currawongs across three distinctive habitats. 

Dedicated twitchers will want to venture west from Byron Bay for the seven-hour drive to Gwydir Wetlands State Conservation Area, northwest of the Gwydir Valley town of Moree. Here in one of the few surviving wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin you might see black-necked storks, grey-crowned babblers, hooded robins and brolgas from the Waterbird Lagoon bird hide – bring a kayak to paddle across the semi-permanent waterholes. 

Travel south for shorebirds

A seemingly endless string of sandy beaches, quaint seaside towns and rugged bushland extending for more than 400 kilometres, NSW South Coast is home to an exceptional variety of birdlife. 

Spend fruitful hours surveying the birds of the Royal National Park before making your way to the Shoalhaven’s Jervis Bay, home to some of the most dazzling white-sand beaches in the world as well as an abundance of bird species, from sea eagles and albatrosses to little penguins and powerful owls. Download BirdLife Shoalhaven’s guide to bird walks around the Shoalhaven to plan out days of twitching, from the Callala Wetland Walkway Bird Walk at the northern end of Callala Beach, the longest stretch of sand in Jervis Bay, to birdwatching trails in Booderee National Park. 

Look out for more than 90 species of birdlife, including three owl species, satin bowerbirds and rufous fantails in Murramarang National Park, between Jervis Bay and Batemans Bay. Then join a Bird Watching Kayak Tour of the mangroves and rivers around Batemans Bay with Region X.

An hour further south, set sail from Narooma on a Montague Island Adventures cruise to Barunguba Montague Island to spot little penguins, some 90 species of seabirds, including shearwaters, crested terns and Gould’s petrel (one of the country’s rarest endemic seabirds), and a large colony of Australian fur seals.

Another 90 minutes south of Narooma, Eden may be best known for its incredible whale-watching (from May to November), but it’s also a great place to find some remarkable bird species. 

Catch sight of white-bellied sea eagles, storm petrels, prions and more on a Freedom Charters pelagic birdwatching private charter. Or stay on dry land and seek out some of the 210 species recorded in Eden’s Beowa National Park, including migratory swift parrots, eastern ground parrots (one of only four ground-dwelling parrots in the world) and the ground-dwelling eastern bristlebird.

Commune with waterbirds 

With about 300 of Australia’s 800-odd bird species found across the Riverina, the southwest corner of NSW is one of the premier birdwatching regions in the country. Download the comprehensive Bird Trails of the Riverina and South West Slopes of NSW guide to uncover a wish list of prime locations to visit, from the Narrandera Wetlands to Livingstone National Park. 

Nestled in the hills outside Adelong in the Snowy Valleys district of the Riverina, Highfield Farm & Woodland’s luxury off-grid Kestrel Nest EcoHut doubles as your personal bird hide. Pick out some of the 141 bird species recorded on the property at your leisure, or take the resident twitcher’s two-hour guided birdwatching tour for a fuller picture. 

Taking its name from the Murray River, the Murray region is a haven for waterbirds of all kinds. Look for pelicans, black swans and more in the Wonga Wetlands near the riverside city of Albury or book a custom tour of the region with Ironbark Bird Tours.

Gaze out from Murray Valley National Park’s Reed Beds Bird Hide boardwalk, about a 2.5-hour drive west of Albury, to spy yellow rosellas, superb fairy-wrens and purple swamphens. Glide through the Deniliquin section of the park with an Edward River Houseboats rental with pelicans as travelling companions, or take a personalised birding tour around Deniliquin with Australian Ornithological Services to seek out the more elusive of the 150-plus bird species found in this incredible national park. 

You can also hire a houseboat to explore the main section of the Murray River from All Seasons Houseboats, operating from Mildura, or be spoilt for bird-spotting opportunities on a cruise with Murray River Paddlesteamers, departing from Echuca. 

Go west for winged delights 

Head west from Sydney for an epic birdwatching road trip across the Blue Mountains and the Central West of Country NSW. 

An hour’s drive from the centre of Sydney, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains National Park abounds with birdlife. Watch glossy black-cockatoos, yellow-tailed black-cockatoos and gang-gang cockatoos soar among the eucalypts at Wentworth Falls – just one of the many locations popular with local twitchers like the Blue Mountains Bird Observers.

Less than an hour’s drive from the western end of the Blue Mountains, Capertee Valley is another popular birdwatching destination. More than 235 bird species have been recorded in the valley – the world’s second-largest canyon – including around 25 threatened species. Download the Capertee Valley birdwatching guide and head to prime sites to look for endangered regent honeyeaters, musk lorikeets, turquoise parrots and more. 

You’ll want to linger in this magical valley – check into the bed-and-breakfast-style Belle Bois, home to some 150 bird species, or one of Turon Gates’s cottages or cabins, where more than 70 varieties of bird reside on the property.

Further west, explore the many birdwatching spots around Bathurst, the oldest inland settlement in Australia, and spot eastern rosellas, cuckoo-shrikes, honeyeaters and more at the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre in Cowra.

Head to the outback for iconic natives

After heavy rains the lakes of Kinchega National Park, around a 70-minute drive from the Outback NSW hub of Broken Hill, quickly fill up and just as quickly attract hundreds of thousands of birds. Expect to see black swans and pelicans, budgerigars, Major Mitchell cockatoos and more flocking to the park’s Menindee Lake, near the town of Menindee, to join the resident emus. 

A 4.5-hour drive north of Broken Hill, the 153,415-hectare Narriearra Caryapundy Swamp National Park features a series of semi-permanent lakes that attract migratory shorebirds as well as the likes of grey falcons (one of Australia’s most elusive birds, pink-eared ducks, blue-billed ducks and black-winged stilts. Settle in at the Caryapundy tank bird hide to try to glimpse the Bulloo grey grasswren – more than 90 per cent of this rare bird’s habitat is within the national park. 

The dry lake basins of Mungo National Park, a four-hour drive southeast of Broken Hill, may seem desolate but support a thriving bird population. Follow the park’s Zanci Pastoral Loop and take a break at the Round Tank picnic area as you spy the likes of emerald budgerigars, pink cockatoos, pied butcher birds and crested bellbirds. Or leave the driving to experienced wildlife guides on Australian Geographic Travel’s Mungo Outback & Conservation Journey or a Private Mungo Outback Journey with Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours.