Most people visit Darwin, Australia’s Northern Territory capital city, as a jumping-off point for Kakadu National Park and Nitmiluk/Katherine Gorge. Both destinations are spectacular but a little too far for a day trip adventure.
However, there are plenty of opportunities to see wildlife in Darwin or within a shorter drive from the city. Several wildlife-watching tours are also on offer, which I will mention below.
I visited Darwin twice. First, at the end of the wet season as part of an epic Adelaide to Darwin road trip that focused primarily on finding unique Australian animals in the country’s vast Northern Territory.
Recently, I returned to Darwin at the end of the dry season (September) for a post-conference getaway. I revisited my favourite spots and discovered a couple of new ones.
Here is my guide to some excellent places and tours for spotting wildlife in Darwin.
Buffalo Creek Birdwatching Cruise
The best discovery on my recent visit was a boat cruise along Buffalo Creek with Christopher Spooner. The timing of the cruise varies as it needs to coincide with low tide, and during my visit, the low tide came a couple of hours before sunset, so we were cruising during the golden hour.
The main attractions of the cruise for the serious birders are the Chestnut rail and Little kingfisher, but you’ll see plenty more birds with Christopher. If you are a photographer, you’ll love how close you can get to some of the birds in a boat.
We had up-close and personal encounters with Little, Azure and Sacred kingfishers. In fact, we watched Little kingfishers fishing several times. Chestnut rails and Buff-banded rails were also happy to strut along the muddy bank within a few meters of us. Other than these nonchalant guys, we had good views of Striated herons, Common Greenshank, Common Sandpipers, Bar-breasted honeyeaters, Rufus-banded honeyeaters and Shining flycatchers.
If you are keen, check my guide to Buffalo Creek boat tour for details.
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
The easiest natural gem to visit in Darwin is the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens. It is a 5-minute drive/Uber ride or a 20-minute bus ride from the city centre. The proximity to the city centre makes a visit to the gardens one of the most convenient things to do in Darwin for anyone who enjoys seeing a wide variety of birds.
The botanic gardens are a great place to see some of the region’s 400+ bird species. It is best to visit the gardens first thing in the morning (the gardens open at 7 a.m.) or an hour or two before sunset. Not only are the birds more active, but it is also much cooler during these times.
The first birds you’ll see in the gardens are the Orange-footed scrubfowl kicking up the soil as they dig the leaf litter in search of food. Torresian Imperial Pigeons are also hard to miss with their mostly white plumage.
Figbirds and White-Gaped, Brown, Dusky and Blue-Faced Honeyeaters were quite common in the gardens, as were Spangled drongos, Bar-shouldered and Peaceful doves.
But my favourite birds in Darwin Botanic Gardens are the finches. I found Crimson and double-barred finches in the grassy areas, where they feed on grass seeds.
They are not always easy to approach for a closer look, but I found that staying still near their favourite feeding spot for ten or so minutes put the birds at ease, and they were happy to flutter all around me in the end.
Apart from the finches, I was happy to see a Blue-winged kookaburra. While the Laughing kookaburras are common around Sydney and the rest of eastern Australia, the Blue-winged kookaburra is restricted to the north of the continent.
The area around the visitor centre is a good spot for finding Forest kingfishers. They have a nest here and I found them each time I visited the gardens.
You’ll have no trouble spotting Red-collared lorikeets and Sulpher-crested cockatoos. You’ll likely hear them before you see them. If you are lucky, you might also spot Red-tailed black cockatoos.
Of course, the most famous bird in the gardens is the Rufus owl. There is a resident pair that nests in the rainforest area. Unfortunately, I missed the owls on both my visits.
Mindil Beach
Across the road from the botanic gardens is Mindil Beach. It is a great spot to watch the sun set over the ocean. But it is also a good spot to see birds of prey including Black, Brahmini, and Whistling kites.
I was chuffed to see a flock of Red-tailed black cockatoos here. One of the males had a particularly impressive Mohawk-like crest above his beak.
On Thursdays and Sundays, Mindil Beach turns into a lively sunset market with dozens of stalls selling food and souvenirs. So pick your day wisely, depending on whether you are looking for a tranquil bird-watching walk or a fun market atmosphere.
On market days, you can also get a Thai massage at the beach, which is a great way to relax if you’ve been carrying a backpack full of camera gear all day.
Lee Point Beach
Lying on the outskirts of the city, Lee Point Beach looks and feels like a wild beach. And in a way, it is. Australia’s Top End beaches are off-limits for swimming. If a Saltwater crocodile doesn’t get you, a Box jellyfish probably will. As a result, in contrast to the rest of the Australian coastline, Northern Territory beaches are often virtually empty. And what happens if you take people away from the beach? Wildlife comes back.
The beaches of Casuarina Coastal Reserve at Darwin’s Lee Point are teaming with wildlife. The first inhabitants that caught our eye were Black kites. There were dozens of them: in the air, on the trees fringing the beach and even on the beach itself – looking for tasty morsels washed up by the tide.
Such a high density of predators made other beach residents a little nervous. The Beach stone curlew kept a wary eye on the kites as it foraged on the beach. It is an uncommon species across most of its range, and it relies on undisturbed open beaches for habitat.
Near the water’s edge, Red-capped plovers kept bursting into short sprints whenever kites flew overhead.
There was also a sizable colony of Great crested terns on the coastal rock shelf with a few Caspian terns, an occasional Little tern among them, and a fair number of Silver gulls.
While we watched the terns and gulls catching fish and trying to steal it from one another while flying at breakneck speed, a flock of Great knots swooped in and settled on the rocks exposed by low tide. This species is a winter visitor to Australia that would soon return to its breeding grounds in the Siberian tundra. On closer inspection, a few red blobs in the flock turned out to be Red knots.
More species came and went throughout the day: Reef egret, Intermediate egret, Whistling kite, and little Solder crabs. It was refreshing to see such species diversity on the beach in contrast to the usual Homo sapience homogeneity. Without the suntanning crowds, the beach at Lee Point became one of the best places for watching wildlife in Darwin.
East Point Reserve
I visited East Point Reserve with Christopher Spooner in the morning of our 2-day adventure to see Hooded Parrots in Pine Creek. We mostly came to see the Yellow-tinted honeyeaters. These birds don’t typically occur in Darwin, but somehow, some of them discovered East Point and settled here.
We also spotted a White-bellied cuckoo shrike, some Figbirds, Brown honeyeaters and a few gorgeous Rainbow bee-eaters.
The reserve is an excellent place to see Agile wallabies. It is home to about 200 of them. This is the best place to see wallabies in Darwin. You can spot them browsing on the grassy lawns, especially in the morning and late afternoon when it’s not as hot.
There is also a lovely 1.5km mangrove boardwalk that starts from the car park and leads to a small lookout. There isn’t much of a view from the lookout, but if you stay there for some time, you are likely to spot some nice birds.
We saw a Red-headed honeyeater, a few Shining flycatchers, a Lemon-bellied fly robin and a Broad-billed flycatcher.
And if you are visiting in the afternoon, stay for the sunset. There is even a dedicated sunset-watching area with a few benches facing west. To find it, park at the fork in the road between Pee Wees and the Military Museum and follow the signs to the shelter.
Day Trips from Darwin
The rest of the attractions in this guide can be visited on day trips from Darwin. I am not including Kakadu National Park here since it is just a little too far for a day trip. You can do it if you are prepared to spend 8 hrs in the car for a couple of hours in the park. There are also several (expensive) day tours on offer. If you do decide to take one, choose the tour that includes the Yellow Water Billabong cruise, which is the best opportunity to see the park’s wildlife.
Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve
One of the best places to see an incredible abundance and diversity of birds and experience a tropical wetland near Darwin is the Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve. This peaceful wetland lies 67 km from Darwin, and a drive to the dam was one of our favourite things to do in Darwin.
Having said that, Fogg Dam is at its best at the end of the wet season when the floodwaters wash away most of the lotus lilies, leaving plenty of open water for the wading birds.
If you don’t have a car, you can visit Fogg Dam on an afternoon tour from Darwin. This tour doesn’t run every day, so check availability for your dates and plan accordingly.
We loved Fogg Dam so much that we visited it several times on the way to and from Kakadu National Park and a couple more times at night while we stayed in Darwin during our road trip. The drive to the dam along Arnhem Hwy is a wildlife-watching experience in its own right.
In the daytime, Fogg Dam is all about birds. It is a good place to see Combat-crested jacanas, Jabirus, Magpie geese, and Raja shell ducks, as well as egrets, herons, and Royal spoonbills. The walking trails at the dam take you deeper into the different habitat types and provide good opportunities for spotting kingfishers, bee-eaters, fruit doves, thrillers, and flycatchers.
Fogg Dam is also famous for having the world’s highest biomass of snakes. There are 800 snakes per square km, mostly Olive and Water pythons.
The dam was created in the 1950s as part of a rice-growing project. The project failed, but the rice crops attracted thousands of Dusky rats, which in turn attracted their predators – the snakes. To see this spectacle, you need to visit at night. You can find more details in my guide to Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve.
The most interesting creature we encountered driving between Fogg Dam and Darwin was the northern death adder crossing the road. Australia is famous for harbouring the world’s most venomous snakes. Of the 25 most venomous snakes in the world, 21 live in Australia, and the Death Adder is among the ten most venomous Australian snakes.
Corroboree Billabong on Mary River Wetlands
Fogg Dam lies about halfway between Darwin and Mary River wetlands. I highly recommend extending your nature adventure to Mary River wetlands, which lie adjacent to Mary River National Park. In terms of the wetland landscape and abundance of wildlife, Corroboree Billabong in Mary River wetlands is very similar to Yellow Water Billabong in Kakadu National Park.
Of all the things to do in Darwin, a cruise on a billabong is a must. So, if you don’t have a couple of days to visit Kakadu, head to Corroboree Billabong to experience the iconic landscape of Australia’s top end. And if you don’t have a car, you can book a tour from Darwin that combines Fogg Dam and Mary River.
A billabong cruise is all about spotting the infamous Saltwater crocodiles and an incredible diversity of birdlife. What Mary River has over Yellow Water Billabong is the abundance of Freshwater crocodiles. There are probably plenty of them in Kakadu as well, but I’ve never seen one on my three cruises on Yellow Water Billabong. In Mary River wetlands, I’ve seen three on a single cruise.
The birdlife on the billabong is spectacular: jabirus, adorable Comb-crested jacanas, White-bellied sea eagles, Whistling kites, Magpie geese, Whistling ducks, Raja shell ducks, and several species of egrets and herons. For more details, check out my guide to visiting Corroboree Billabong.
Territory Park
Another good place to see the iconic wildlife of Australia’s Top End near Darwin is the Territory Wildlife Park, 50 km south of Darwin. If you don’t have a car, you can visit the park on an organized tour from Darwin.
I’m generally not a fan of seeing animals in captivity, but I desperately wanted to see an Antilopine wallaroo – one of the common Northern Territory animals that evaded us everywhere else.
Despite my reservations, we quite liked the Territory Wildlife Park. It has a long history of participating in conservation and research programs, like the captive breeding programs for the endangered Northern quolls and Black-footed tree-rats. It was also obvious that the animal keepers at the park had genuine care for their charges.
The Antilopine wallaroos seemed blissfully content, snoozing in the shade in their large fenced-off enclosure. The bird show was well worth watching too, to see a Black-breasted buzzard using a rock to crack a massive egg and an Osprey dive into a pool for a fish. The skill and intelligence these birds demonstrate are extraordinary.
Litchfield National Park
Litchfield is by far the most spectacular national park within easy reach of Darwin. Lying just over 100 km south of Darwin, a day trip to Litchfield should definitely be on your bucket list of things to do in Darwin, whether you are a nature buff or not. The park is home to some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the Northern Territory.
If you’d rather not drive, you can visit Lichfield on a day tour from Darwin. This way, you don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot in the park, which is a boon if you visit the park during the peak season. Lichfield is by far the most crowded of all attractions listed in this guide.
The must-see waterfalls in Lichfield are Wangi Falls, Florence Falls (anything named after Florence gets my vote!), and Tolmer Falls (this one is reached by a 1.6km loop walk). Bullet Rock Hole is a gentle 3-tied waterfall perfect for a refreshing dip.
As you drive around the park, don’t miss the enormous termite mounds – some of the largest magnetic termite mounds in the world.
Best time to visit Darwin
Now that you know where to find the best things to do in Darwin, let’s talk about when.
Weather-wise, the best time to visit Darwin is during the peak of the dry season, June-August. The temperature is in the high 20s, and the air is dry. Another perk is the dry season sunsets. With all the backburning (to reduce the fuel load of dry grasses), there is a lot of smoke in the air. And when the sun gets low in the sky, the smoke makes the sky look as if it is on fire.
Avoid visiting during the build-up season from October to Christmas. The temperatures skyrocket into the 40s, and humidity is almost 100%. Our bodies are not designed to withstand such conditions, and people tend to go slightly mad. This is where the saying “going tropo” comes from.
When the rains finally come, they arrive as epic storms that sound like an Armageddon. The storms are quite spectacular, with up to 1,000 lightning strikes per storm. But much of the Top End becomes inaccessible during the wet season.
The rains are followed by the run-off season when all the waters run into the ocean. By the end of April, most of the water is gone, and the billabongs are at their best. The high water levels mean that you’ll be cruising through the flooded forests several meters up from the ground level.
It’s a magical feeling to cruise among the submerged tree trunks. Although some of the roads might still be flooded during this time, and some places are still inaccessible unless you are driving a high-clearance 4×4 with a snorkel.
I hope this post inspired you to see some of Darwin’s amazing wildlife and provided you with enough practical information to make it happen.
More Northern Territory Nature Adventures
- Uluru animals – Weird and wonderful creatures you can spot at Uluru
- 35 Things to Do in the Northern Territory for Nature Enthusiasts
- On the Trail of Hooded Parrots in Pine Creek, Northern Territory
- Corroboree Billabong – Mary River Wetlands Cruise
- 9 Best Places to See Wildlife in Darwin
- Best Place to See Little Kingfisher and Chestnut Rail in Darwin
- Exploring West MacDonnell Ranges: Stunning Gorges and Desert Wildlife
- Guide to Spotting Wildlife in Kakadu National Park
- 5 Best Ways to Experience Nitmiluk / Katherine Gorge
- Karlu Karlu / Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve
