Brilliant birds
The Broome Bird Observatory provides the perfect opportunity to watch and enjoy some of the most spectacular bird-spotting in Australia.
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merging from the pindan woodland and leaning over Roebuck Bay, the Broome Bird Observatory’s viewing platform is a window onto our vast tides. When they are low, tens of thousands of shorebirds spread across the flats, feeding on rich mud. As the turquoise water advances, the birds inch closer, and once all the mud is covered, the beaches along our shores are teeming. This is the best time to watch, carefully, some 35 species of shorebird at remarkably close quarters, all waiting for the tide to expose their feeding grounds again.
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Broome Visitor Guide | 2022
This ritual is a wildlife spectacle in its own right, but the annual movements of most shorebirds really set them apart. It’s a long way to Broome from Siberia. Nevertheless, migrating adults of many species make this round trip every year. In March and April, you can watch from the red cliffs as V-shaped flocks depart to breed. They return gradually later in the year. Their offspring, just a few months old, arrive miraculously weeks afterwards. After this incredible journey, young birds wait a full year or two before crossing the equator again, and these are the 20,000 shorebirds you can see all through
the Broome dry season. Once the breeding adults have returned, the number swells closer to 120,000. Roebuck Bay provides a beautiful backdrop for viewing these iconic birds all year round. In other corners of the bay, mangroves shelter brilliant red fiddler crabs, squabbling mudskippers and a suite of specialised songbirds. The saltmarsh behind is home to the enigmatic yellow chat, a bright gem of a bird seen bouncing through the samphire in small flocks. Just inland are the wide open grasslands of Roebuck Plains. The Broome Bird Observatory is nestled visitbroome.com.au
