What is your favorite bird species?
Any Cuckoo
What is your name, and where do you live?
Tom Tarrant, living in Dayboro a small town 45 minutes north-west of Brisbane CBD.
Variegated Fairywren
What are the main regions or locations you cover as a bird guide?
Greater Brisbane and Southeast Queensland (… also other areas of the State)
How long have you been a bird guide?
Nearly 30 years
How did you get into bird guiding?
Was asked to show overseas tourists Regent Bowerbirds.
What are the aspects of being a bird guide that you like best? Which aspects do you dislike most?
I enjoy showing people birds that they haven’t seen before. I don’t enjoy large noisy groups (6 people or more)
What are the top 5-10 birds in your region that you think are the most interesting for visiting birders?
Black-breasted Buttonquail, King Quail, Marbled Frogmouth, Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl, White-eared Monarch, Spotted Quailthrush, Torresian Kingfisher, Mangrove Gerygone, Mangrove Honeyeater.
Black-breasted Buttonquail
King Quail
Marbled Frogmouth
Spotted Quailthrush
Can you outline at least one typical birdwatching trip in your area? Please briefly describe the locations, the key birds, and the approximate duration of such a trip
Birding in the Moreton Bayside area around Wynnum-Manly, close to Brisbane Airport and the International Cruise Terminal. Frequently 80-100 species within a day here, including Mangrove Gerygone, Mangrove Honeyeater, Torresian Kingfisher, various crakes, rails and bitterns
Two or more day trips to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, Lamington NP, Albert’s Lyrebird, Regent Bowerbird, Paradise Riflebird, and many other rainforest species.
Day trip to D’Aguilar National Park, Eucalyptus and rainforest woodland Regent Bowerbird, Paradise Riflebird, Bell Miner, Spotted Quailthrush, Pacific Baza, Grey Goshawk.
What other suggestions can you give to birders interested in your area? (for example, what to bring, which season to choose, etc.)
Springtime in SE Qld is September to December, the best time for migrants and usually pleasantly warm, December to March can be hot and humid, early mornings and late-afternoon optimum time for birding. April to August is winter, which is usually dry and cool but rarely cold, it’s a great time for a trip to the western districts for the desert species and parrots.
Pale-headed Rosella
If any reader of 10,000 Birds is interested in birding with you, how can they best contact you?
I have a website at www.australiainthewild.com and am active on Facebook, Mastodon, and Whatsapp (under Aviceda).
What else would you like to share with the readers of 10,000 Birds?
A friend of mine runs monthly pelagic trips from Southport on the Gold Coast for one-day or 4-day trips further out, these are usually heavily booked in advance but I may be able to reserve places if dates required are known in advance.
Putting Tom on my list of “people to contact” – what a birds!