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Australia Australia Ramsar wetland

Moreton Bay

56 bird species recorded; the most in December.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec30at the peak
Species recorded in each month · tap a month

RubyGoes · CC BY 2.0

This month here

6 species in January.

The birds you are most likely to see in the month you choose, those that come for the season first. It opens on today's month.

Pied Cormorant
Pied CormorantPhalacrocorax variusSummer visitorTony Wills · CC BY-SA 3.0
Great Crested-Tern
Great Crested-TernThalasseus bergiiResidentNoodle snacks · CC BY-SA 3.0
Silver Gull
Silver GullChroicocephalus novaehollandiaeResidentJJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Caspian Tern
Caspian TernHydroprogne caspiaResidentMdf · CC BY-SA 3.0
  • Resident all year
  • Summer visitor comes to breed
  • Winter visitor comes for the winter
  • Passage migrant in spring and autumn

In numbers

56 species, counted.

41out of 100

Our own rating, from the records only: species (50 points), threatened species (20), migrants (20) and protected status — Ramsar, IBA, SPA, observatory (10).

  • 56Speciesrecorded more than once
  • 16Migrantssummer, winter or passage visitors
  • 1ThreatenedVulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered (IUCN)
  • 450Recordsopen records within 6 km
  • 3Raptors
  • 8Waders
  • 16Gulls & seabirds
  • 1Ducks & geese
  • 9Herons, ibises & grebes
  • 12Songbirds
  • 7Other birds

From open records (eBird and others, through GBIF, licensed for any use). More birdwatchers mean more records: a quiet place may have more birds than it shows.

The checklist

All 56 species.

By group, with the year in twelve cells: the darker the cell, the more often the bird is recorded that month.

Raptors3 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • White-bellied Sea-EagleHaliaeetus leucogaster
  • Brahminy KiteHaliastur indus
  • Whistling KiteHaliastur sphenurus
Waders8 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Sooty OystercatcherHaematopus fuliginosus
  • Masked LapwingVanellus miles
  • Pied OystercatcherHaematopus longirostris
  • Far Eastern CurlewNumenius madagascariensis
  • Pied StiltHimantopus leucocephalus
  • Curlew SandpiperCalidris ferrugineaVU
  • Red-necked StintCalidris ruficollisNT
  • Great KnotCalidris tenuirostris
Gulls & seabirds16 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Great Crested-TernThalasseus bergii
  • Australasian GannetMorus serrator
  • Silver GullChroicocephalus novaehollandiae
  • Brown BoobySula leucogaster
  • Arctic SkuaStercorarius parasiticus
  • Caspian TernHydroprogne caspia
  • Australian TernGelochelidon macrotarsa
  • Fluttering ShearwaterPuffinus gavia
  • Little TernSternula albifrons
  • Common TernSterna hirundo
  • Whiskered TernChlidonias hybrida
  • Puffinus tenuirostrisPuffinus tenuirostris
  • Puffinus huttoniPuffinus huttoni
  • Lesser Crested TernThalasseus bengalensis
  • Wedge-tailed ShearwaterPuffinus pacificus
  • Wilson's Storm-PetrelOceanites oceanicus
Ducks & geese1 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Pacific Black DuckAnas superciliosa
Herons, ibises & grebes9 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Pied CormorantPhalacrocorax varius
  • Australian PelicanPelecanus conspicillatus
  • Little Pied CormorantMicrocarbo melanoleucos
  • Australian White IbisThreskiornis molucca
  • White-faced HeronEgretta novaehollandiae
  • Little Black CormorantPhalacrocorax sulcirostris
  • Great White EgretArdea alba
  • Little EgretEgretta garzetta
  • Australasian DarterAnhinga novaehollandiae
Songbirds12 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Welcome SwallowHirundo neoxena
  • Mangrove HoneyeaterGavicalis fasciogularis
  • Artamus leucorynArtamus leucoryn
  • Satin BowerbirdPtilonorhynchus violaceus
  • Torresian CrowCorvus orru
  • Noisy MinerManorina melanocephala
  • Artamus leucorhynchosArtamus leucorhynchos
  • Mangrove GerygoneGerygone levigaster
  • Magpie larkGrallina cyanoleuca
  • Black-faced CuckooshrikeCoracina novaehollandiae
  • Eastern Yellow RobinEopsaltria australis
  • Green CatbirdAiluroedus crassirostris
Other birds7 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Rock DoveColumba livia
  • White-cheeked RosellaPlatycercus adscitus
  • Paradise ParrotPsephotellus pulcherrimus
  • Forest KingfisherTodiramphus macleayii
  • Australian King ParrotAlisterus scapularis
  • Crested PigeonOcyphaps lophotes
  • White-headed PigeonColumba leucomela

Monthly presence relative to all bird records that month, so a busy month does not inflate every species.

When to go

The most species in December.

Species recorded in each month, with the usual temperature and rain.

  1. Jan629°/22°140 mm
  2. Feb2428°/22°156 mm
  3. Mar1027°/21°136 mm
  4. Apr525°/19°83 mm
  5. May923°/15°73 mm
  6. Jun1320°/14°88 mm
  7. Jul1720°/12°38 mm
  8. Aug1221°/12°45 mm
  9. Sep624°/15°38 mm
  10. Oct1126°/17°81 mm
  11. Nov1927°/19°92 mm
  12. Dec3028°/21°130 mm
  • Bar: species recorded that month.
  • Temperature: average maximum / minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Moreton Bay.

Bay in Queensland, Australia

Moreton Bay is a wetland of international importance (Ramsar) in Australia.

56 bird species have been recorded here more than once, in 450 open records.

The most recorded are the Great Crested-Tern, the Pied Cormorant and the Australasian Gannet.

9 species come for the summer, 4 for the winter and 3 only pass through.

1 are threatened worldwide, including Curlew Sandpiper.

The most species are recorded in December.

A SPLENDID MORETON BAY FIG TREE (15715549722)
RubyGoes · CC BY 2.0

Get there and watch

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The place and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the bird hides, towers and trails that OpenStreetMap shows.

Moreton Bay seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

    • bird hides within 6 km
    • observation towers within 6 km
    • marked trails within 4 km
    • visitor centres within 6 km
    • viewpoints within 5 km
    • car parks within 3 km
    • restaurants and cafés within 3 km
    • campsites within 10 km
    • places to stay within 10 km

    Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

    In our other atlases

    Around Moreton Bay.

    The lakes, beaches, islands, rivers and mountains around this place, and its night sky, in the family's atlases.

    Peakyas28 mountains within 25 km
    Otter Rock · 14 kmWalkers Ridge · 18 kmStorm Mountain · 18 kmMount Tempest · 18 kmRound Hill · 18 kmRussells Top · 20 kmThird Ridge · 23 kmSecond Ridge · 24 km

    Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

    Photographs

    The place, as people saw it.

    Cooked whole Moreton Bay Bug
    Kingturkey · CC BY-SA 3.0
    Blimp over Moreton Bay-01+ (464852961)
    Sheba_Also 43,000 photos · CC BY-SA 2.0
    Dawn over Moreton Bay-1= (5867416815)
    Sheba_Also 43,000 photos · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Other places nearby.

    Moreton Bay

    Australia

    • 41Birdyas Score
    • 56Species
    • 16Migrants
    • 1Threatened

    Boondall Wetlands

    Australia · 19 km

    • 84Birdyas Score
    • 326Species
    • 114Migrants
    • 7Threatened

    See the guide

    Great Sandy Strait

    Australia · 194 km

    • 37Birdyas Score
    • 46Species
    • 4Migrants
    • 1Threatened

    See the guide

    Where these figures come from

    Name and typeWikidata (Q1947589) · CC0
    Birds450 open bird records within 6 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only; mostly eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
    See these recordsgbif.org
    SpeciesGBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikidata (CC0); Wikimedia Commons
    AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
    Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
    What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
    ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
    Sister atlasesPeakyas

    Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

    The family

    Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

    Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.