Queer Bird Walk: Royal Park Rendezvous

Hello queer angels, divas and icons <3

It's been too long! Melbourne Queer Birders Collective is heading back outside to enjoy the expansive and surprisingly bird-rich stylings of Royal Park in the inner suburbs.

Royal Park is one of the best places to cut your teeth as a birdwatcher in Melbourne, with a pleasant mix of birds not found in more manicured urban parks, patches of remnant native vegetation, and an expansiveness that can distract you from its inner-city location if you don't squint too hard. It's difficult to leave Royal Park in a bad mood after watching a family of fairy-wrens chase each other through the butter-yellow wattles in early spring!

Spots are limited and usually fill up quickly (each walk is capped at 35 people), so make sure to register quickly if you'd like to come along!

If you’ve registered and can no longer attend, please cancel your order in Humanitix so we can release your spot to people on our waitlist.

What will we see?

There are plenty of regular stars to admire in Royal Park, but at this time of year almost anything can turn up, so keep an eye out for unfamiliar faces if you want bragging rights! All sorts of bizarre birds have shown up here, and this tends to happen most often during autumn and spring.

Stalwart species in the park include Superb Fairy-wrens, White-browed Scrubwrens and the delightful Spotted Pardalotes, which can be very easy to see up close if we get lucky enough to find them in the small trees at the top of the woodland remnant. There are also many resident Tawny Frogmouths, plenty of common waterbirds (we're partial to the Purple Swamphens), and a group of Hardheads, possibly the most strangely-named duck on the planet.

White-plumed and New Holland Honeyeaters swarm in flowering eucalypts near the wetlands, and Bell Miners are also common around Trin-warren Tam-boore and the zoo. Musk and Little Lorikeets also frequent these gum trees, the latter being uncommon and diabolical to pin down, but incredibly cute if you can! Potentially even cuter are the Red-rumped Parrots that sometimes feed on the grassy lawns in the park, often overlooked but very common in this part of Melbourne.

For people joining us on the full walk, an unexpected highlight will be the Australian Owlet-nightjar that has taken up residence in a tree hollow in the south of the park.

eBird hotspot: Royal Park

When and where:

10:00 am at the Oak St Carpark on Oak St – we will depart from this location.

You can get to this site easily by car, but there are several public transport options available. The 505 bus stops nearby, and the 57 and 59 trams also stop within about 1 km of the carpark. People coming by train can alight at Royal Park station and head west from there. Rideshare apps are also readily available, since this site is so close to the city. Do note that taking the tram or train will add a reasonable amount of walking effort to your day, so plan for this appropriately depending on your energy levels and mobility needs.

As this location is accessible via several transportation methods, we will not be coordinating carpooling for attendees.

This walk is taking place on Wurundjeri Country.

What to bring:

Binoculars and/or a camera if you have them (highly recommended!), sun and wet weather protection, lunch/snacks and plenty of water. While this isn't an arduous walk, all of the paths are fairly hard-surfaced, so please wear sensible footwear that will keep you comfy for a couple of hrs on the go!

Accessibility:

Royal Park is reasonably well-equipped for people with mobility needs. However, accessibility and path grade vary in different parts of the park and there are some reasonable inclines. The storage wetland and Trin-warren Tam-boore are wheelchair-accessible, but with sections of dirt path. The woodland remnant contains some hills and dirt paths, and the trail from here to the grassy circle is all paved (but with some incline). Many sections of the sealed path in this area are also shared bike trails.

This walk does not require a high level of physical fitness, but please wear sensible footwear and assess whether you will be comfortable spending one to three hours walking outdoors. The walk from the carpark to and back from the Australian Owlet-nightjar site will be about 4.5 km return, but the walk around the wetlands and woodland remnant is far shorter, approximately 1.5 km return when accounting for all of our pottering about. It is also possible to hail a rideshare from a site near the end of the walk and return to the meeting point that way.

Bathroom facilities:

There are toilets at the carpark where we'll meet, so please make use of these before we head off if you need (especially if you will be coming with us to the grassy circle at the end of the walk!).

Route:

A map of Royal Park is available here. We will start at the Oak St carpark, look around the wetlands and White's Skink habitat, and then head south to the grassy circle for the keener people in the group.

Please feel free to peel away at any point during the walk, depending on energy levels and ability, as the setup of Royal Park should make this relatively easy and much of the bird activity is in the areas we will cover at the beginning of the event.

We will begin our walk at the Oak St carpark, crossing the road and meandering around the Oak St storage pond, and then around the better-known Trin-warren Tam-boore wetland near the carpark. The birds on display vary quite a lot from day to day, and with water levels in the wetlands, but one of the highlights that can be hard to find in urban spaces is the group of Hardheads currently present in the storage pond.

After looking around the wetlands, we will head along the drain and up the hill to a grassy woodland remnant in search of small birds like Spotted Pardalote and maybe even Mistletoebird. At this time of year, there's always a chance something rare and unexpected will turn up in this area - don't expect it, but keep your eyes peeled for unfamiliar birds.

From here, we will take a longer and more direct walk along the railway and past Melbourne Zoo to look for a local celebrity. An Australian Owlet-nightjar, more closely related to hummingbirds than the other nightbirds in Australia, has taken up residence inside a tree hollow near the grassy circle south of the zoo. This is not a bird that frequents urban spaces, so this is a rare opportunity to see an incredibly cute and special bird in inner Melbourne. The owlet-nightjar pokes its head in and out of the tree hollow throughout the day, but bear in mind that as our walk is in the middle of the day we cannot guarantee it will play nice. However, you're more than welcome to return here on your own time to see it call at dusk!

Inclusivity:

Melbourne Queer Birders Collective has a no-tolerance policy for any homophobic, transphobic or racist behaviour. Our events are not catered towards young children and conversations are liable to include both adult and queer-specific themes. If you are attending with a partner, partners, friends, or a carer, please ensure that each person is registered individually by name.

Image credits:

Spotted Pardalote by patrickkavanagh on Flickr downloaded 25th September 2026 (CC BY 2.0 license). The image has not been modified for use in the banner and Melbourne Queer Birders Collective does not collect any financial compensation for our activities.

Melbourne Queer Birders Collective logo supplied by our dear friend Iona Julian-Walters <3