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To the right of the frame, a grey and black Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike is perched on a branch against an orange dappled background, facing towards the left.
Photographed by Wilson Lennard
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Birds to look out for in April

Wednesday, 1 April 2026

  • Estimated reading time 2 min

Birds to look out for in April

What birds might you see this month? Here are a few to look out for…

  • Migratory shorebirds leaving Australian mudflats to fly to their Northern Hemisphere breeding grounds  
  • Flocks of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters on passage along the Great Dividing Range  
  • Swift Parrots on the move across mainland south-eastern Australia in search of lerp and blossom
  • Wintering Fairy Martins arriving in the Top End  
  • Arrival in the Gulf of Carpentaria of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers on passage from southern Australia   
  • Departure of Fork-tailed Swifts from southern parts of WA  
  • Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes leaving Tasmania  
In the centre of the frame, a Yellow-faced Honeyeater is perched on top of a branch, head cocked and looking towards the camera against a pale brown gradient background.
From late March, hundreds of thousands of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters migrate northwards. Photo by Rob Solic

Interesting historical records:

6/4/2011  House Swift  |  Broome, WA  |  4th record for Broome  

9/4/2011  Great Shearwater  |  off Sydney  |  6th record for Australia  

17/4/2005  Kentish Plover  |  Christmas Island  |  1st record for Christmas Island

21/4/2008  Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler  |  Christmas Island  |  1st record for Australia   

27/4/1987  Common Redshank  |  Cairns, Qld  |  1st record for Queensland  

29/4/1968  Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove  |  Exeter, Tas  |  2nd record for Tasmania  

What birds have you seen?

Log your bird sightings on Birdata, our national bird monitoring program, and contribute valuable data to help Australia’s birds.

Head to birdata.birdlife.org.au to get started today, or watch our handy video tutorial below to find out how to submit a 2ha 20 min survey of your own.

Related information

Program
Birdata

To save birds, we need reliable data. Birdata is Australia's online national bird monitoring platform. Compiled by professional researchers and citizen scientists, Birdata is Australia's longest running digital database for bird sightings with more than 30 million records (and counting).