Birdwatching in Daintree is by boat at dawn. Everyone on a birdwatching boat can see the birds in seated comfort as they effortlessly glide up to kingfishers, herons, frogmouths and flycatchers.....

Bird calls of the Daintree was done from Chris Dahlberg's river boat and features the very first sound recording of the Great-billed Heron's main call in 1993.
Harold & Audrey Crouch

Lots of places to stay in Daintree.
Accommodation options?

Daintree is now part of Cairns.
Cairns birdwatching itineraries.

Comprehensive tourist information.
www.daintree.info

Daintree Discovery Guide App

Help save our industry and help stop Daintree becoming a ghost town. Accommodation Houses are taking advantage of small boat operators. These places are taking as much as 20% commission for booking seats on behalf of their guests for birdwatching tours.
Apart from being grossly unfair and demoralising to their "Mates", this action is not sustainable and flies in the face of Eco-tourism principles.
Please, if you intend to take a cruise on any boat for birdwatching do some research into which boat driver to go with and book with that operator.

Birds of the Daintree DVD was filmed from Chris Dahlberg's river boat. Honourable mention for bird diversity at International Wildlife Film festival.

Other places to go birdwatching in Daintree:
Stewart's Creek Road from Pioneers Park to the bridge over Stewart's Creek. The road follows the river upstream. It winds through some secondary growth on the high side and a wet forest on the low side and emerges into grassland and then gallery forest fringing Stewart Creek. Reliable for Fairy Gerygone and other passerines.
The picnic area next to the jetty at dawn and dusk. Don't bother in the middle of the day.
Wonga Beach is good for Beach Stone-curlew, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and Little Bronze-Cuckoo.

Apart from some file footage, John Young's "The Lure of the Daintree" was filmed from Chris Dahlberg's river boat.

BEST TIME TO COME?
Prime Daintree birdwatching time here is October and the beginning of November which coincides with the arrival of the last regular migrant species and before the real hot weather takes hold. At some point after this will be the onset of the wet. Birdwatching in Daintree is fruitful year round and it is up to the visitor to decide when they can come. There is little to recommend the traditionally wet weather months of February and March when up to two metres of rain can fall. In early March 1996 a metre an a half of rain fell in five days. The link above deals with seasonal variations in greater depth.

North of the river. The two local ornithologists who have produced guide books of this area have left this section out or in one case, have not been complementary of the area north of the river for birdwatching. However Cassowary sightings on the Jindalba Walk, Cow Bay have been good in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Barratt Creek bridge. Birdwatching boats can go under this bridge most days into the prettiest waterway of the Daintree River. It is here that most of  the sound recordings and filming of  secretive species has been done. All our rarest bird species can be found on the other side of this bridge.
The big tourist boats cannot go there.

BEST TIME NOT TO COME?
See that bridge to the left? That is the only way into the Daintree Village. With an average annual rainfall approaching 4 metres, half of it will fall in February and March. It is not unusual for the bridge to go under at that time. See panels at right ->

After the 2009 wet season has started I re-enforced my sentiments from the left box.
MacDonalds in Cairns couldn't even get lettuce or tomatoes for their hamburgers due to road closures on the Bruce Highway to the south caused by the "wet".
2011 More of the same but further afield.

2012
Wet season problems.
The "Fresh Food" people at Mossman ran out of food this wet season. The Captain Cook Highway was cut in 4 places between Cairns and Port Douglas and the torturous back road was closed at Julatten because Bushy Creek was flooded.