Located only a few minutes from Gagudju Lodge, Cooinda is the Warradjan Cultural Centre which is well worth a visit to see the Aboriginal art and culture exhibits. It is open from 9-5 daily and is free to visit. This is an excellent way to while away a hot afternoon in Kakadu!
They don’t allow photos inside so I only have a few exteriors.
You can find both souvenirs and Aboriginal art in the gift shop.
The Nankeen Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) also commonly referred to as the Rufous Night Heron, and in Melanesia as Melabaob, is a medium-sized heron.
I can’t tell if this bird from Kakadu Yellow Waters is admiring himself or looking for food!
They have a large range in Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, and throughout much of Australia except the arid inland. A small colony has also established near Wanganui, New Zealand.
Go away and let me sleep!
Beautiful close-ups here!
The best way to see LOTS of birds (and a few crocs) with no effort at all is to book a Sunset Cruise with Yellow Waters at Cooinda. It’s a short drive from the Kakadu Lodge Cooinda and they have a shuttle bus between the lodge and the boat dock. Not only do you see more birds but you avoid the crowds at the mid-day cruise who are day-tripping from Darwin!
When you book, do it online and be sure to scroll all the way down to where you can add a Sunrise Cruise the next morning (incl bkft) for $36!
The boats are open but try to sit in the front if you are into photography.
Crocs before even leaving the dock.
Darter
Darter
“I will eat you!”
Plumed Whistling Duck
Black-necked Stork
Rainbow Bee-eater
White-bellied Sea Eagle
Darter
Little Corellas
Comb-crested Jacana
Nankeen Night Heron 
Azure Kingfisher
Whistling Kite
Towards the end of the cruise, they parked the boats at a nice vantage spot to watch the sunset.
I actually saw more birds than I got photos of. Here is my full eBird list.
Staying at the Gagudjdu Lodge Cooinda in September wasn’t cheap! For some reason, this month was higher than August or October and I did plan the trip outside of school holidays. I was able to bring the cost down somewhat by using Le Club Accor certificates. 40 Euros was equal to about $60 each and between my husband and I we had a few of them. If you are birding in Kakadu, you really do need to stay at least one night here because this is where the Yellow Water Cruises depart from and they are a MUST!
This was our room in a building that had 4 rooms (I think), 2 on each side.
Very neat and tidy room. Since it was my birthday, they gave me a bottle of white wine!
Nice assortment of toiletries!
One thing is that they don’t have that many tables in the restaurant. We ended up on a couch with a coffee table in front of us.
I had a lamb shank which was really good. They didn’t have birthday cakes so I ordered this pineapple flavoured dessert.
The next morning, a breakfast buffet was included as part of the Yellow Waters package I bought. It had a good selection, but again we had to take the same couch as the tables were all full.
We weren’t in a hurry to leave so had a quick swim after breakfast.
A few birds were hanging around the pool, including a Blue-faced Honey-eater, a Great Bowerbird and a pair of Torresian Imperial Pigeons.
There is a small gift & food shop and info centre near reception.
I really liked this lodge for the location and the nice rooms. The people were very nice and helpful. There is no wifi but you are way out in the bush! I was sorry we could only afford one night here, 2 would have been better.
Kakadu National Park is one of Australia’s top attractions so unlike the other places I have been so far on this Northern Territory birding trip, I ran into LOTS of other tourists! Most of them are there for crocodiles but a few are also interested in birds. I also found accommodation here to be proportionately more expensive than the other places in the Territory as well.
With only a 2WD car, we were still able to do this itinerary that took in most of the park. We entered from the Pine Creek side and stayed the first night at Cooinda. Then we stopped for a visit to Nourlangie Rock before going to our 2nd night’s accommodation at Jabiru. The 3rd day, we made a couple other birding stops before leaving the park and staying at Mary River.
All of this will be covered in detail in future posts!
The Northern Rosella (Platycercus venustus), also known as Brown’s Parakeet or Smutty Rosella (Huh?), is found in Australia’s Top End. It is found in open savannah country throughout the Gulf of Carpentaria and Arnhem Land to the Kimberley.
It was first described by German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin venustus “charming, lovely or graceful”. (That’s more like it!)
This lovely, graceful bird was seen near the Katherine Hot Springs innocently having dinner and not acting smutty in the least!
They have a large range from the Kimberley in WA across the Northern Territory’s Top End to far north-west Queensland. I saw one quite well in Katherine and some others streaking past at Copperfield Dam near Pine Creek. They are also seen regularly in some parts of Kakadu.
Surprisingly, there isn’t much on wild birds but I did find this short clip of a pair foraging in the grass.
The Blue-winged Kookaburra (Dacelo leachii) is slightly smaller than the more familiar Laughing Kookaburra and has a different kind of call (see video section).
I got my best view at Nitmiluk NP but also saw some in Kakadu NP. They have a huge range across Australia.
First let’s hear the bird’s call.
Now compare to the Laughing Kookaburra. The former doesn’t have the same sense of humour!
Great HD clip!
And a female, not sure how you tell the females from males.
The Great Bowerbird’s (Chlamydera nuchalis) favoured habitat is a broad range of forest and woodland, and the margins of vine forests, monsoon forest, and mangrove swamps.
As with most members of the bowerbird family, breeding considerations dominate the lifecycle: females nest inconspicuously and raise their young alone, while the males spend most of the year building, maintaining, improving, defending, and above all displaying from their bowers. Only a male with a successful bower can attract mates. Spend some time watching them decorate, they are so much fun to watch!
They are a common and conspicuous resident of northern Australia, from the area around Broome across the Top End to Cape York Peninsula and as far south as Mount Isa. I got my best views in Katherine near the museum and at the Lazy Lizard Caravan Park but I pretty much saw them everywhere!
Here’s just a few examples of why the Bowerbirds are so much fun to watch! They dance, decorate, romance and more!
The Red-collared Lorikeet (Trichoglossus rubritorquis) was previously considered a subspecies of the rainbow lorikeet, but today most major authorities consider them as separate species. They have become world famous for their drunken antics which sounds like it could be funny but really isn’t as it exposes them to predators.
They are easily found within their range, especailly in Australia’s Northern Territory and are very noisy so you can’t miss them! I saw them around the Darwin area, Pine Creek, Edith Falls, Katherine, Outback Northern Territory, Nitmikuk and Kakadu.
Lets start with some sober parrots foraging as usual.
And here’s a story about the drunk lorikeets.
The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii) also known as Banksian- or Banks’ Black Cockatoo, is a large black cockatoo native to Australia.
C. b. banksii is found in Queensland and, rarely, in far northern New South Wales
C. b. graptogyne, (Endangered) known as the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo, is found in southwestern Victoria and southeastern South Australia in an area bordered by Mount Gambier to the west, Portland to the south, Horsham to the northeast and Bordertown to the north
C. b. macrorhynchus, given the name great-billed cockatoo by Mathews; is found across northern Australia.
C. b. naso (Near Threatened) is known as the forest red-tailed black cockatoo and is found in the southwest corner of Western Australia between Perth and Albany.
C. b. samueli exists in four scattered populations: in central coastal Western Australia from the Pilbara south to the northern Wheatbelt in the vicinity of Northam, and inland river courses in Central Australia, southwestern Queensland and the upper Darling River system in Western New South Wales. Birds of this subspecies are generally smaller with smaller bills than the nominate banksii.
Good places to spot this gregarious and cheeky cockatoo are: Along the coast of Western Australia, the Northern Territory south of Darwin, most parks in South-east Queensland.
Beautiful close-ups of cockatoos foraging and pair bonding.
Filmed at Paradise Park, this slo-mo clip shows the bird in flight.
Flock roosting near Cairns