Bellbird Birding Tours across SA review | SA’s Great Travel Planner

Birdwatching is a relaxing way to take in the bush – except for climbing in and out of cars, it doesn’t need to be strenuous; you wander after the birds at their pace.

When I moved to Adelaide more than 20 years ago, I rekindled a childish passion for parrots.

The idea that we share the suburbs with some of the most gorgeous creatures on Earth (not counting marauding corellas) still makes me unreasonably happy.

So my husband thought a day tour with a birdwatching expert might be the ideal gift – I could sharpen up my spotting skills, find new places to look, and get some tips on photography.

Steve Potter got hooked on birds as a teenager in Africa and has been taking tours as a business for four years.

He’s a recognised expert, not just in Adelaide – he takes tours all over the country, and in South-East Asia. His half and full-day tours are popular with interstate and overseas visitors, showing a completely new dimension to the bush.

Before the tour, I rang Steve to chat about local parrots I had already seen. He devises the tour to take account of your interests, whether that’s emus, water birds or raptors.

The hardest part is getting up for a 6am start – Steve picked us up in his four-wheel-drive while it was still dark. Late summer was good for the shore birds; birds of the bush would be normally at their best in spring. But rains had left the bush in such good condition that many species were laying a second clutch of eggs.

We were lucky, our day was cool, sunny and still. I kept Steve busy with questions on our drive to Adelaide’s fringes – best books and apps, other places to try.

Steve Potter is a bird-spotting star.

Spotted - a yellow-plumed honeyeater

I had no idea there were so many great birding sites around Adelaide, including 60km of shoreline in the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary, which is the breeding site for birds from Alaska, Siberia and East Asia.

We stopped first at Brookfield Conservation Park, a bit of Mallee bush I wouldn’t have looked twice at. But on a short ramble, Steve was able to show us some absolute jewels. There were Australian (Mallee) ringnecks and gorgeous mulga parrots.

While Steve can lend you binoculars, it’s better to bring your own, partly so you have some experience using them, but mostly so they can be adjusted to your eyes. It can take a bit of practice to get a good gawp at the birds, though Steve was very good at directing you at where to look – my husband and teenage daughter got the hang of it very quickly.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this for children – it’s not a zoo where the animals are sitting there to be admired. Some birds, such as the lovely blue-bonnet parrots, just keep their distance. On the other hand, the splendid fairy wren, so blue it almost hurts your eyes, tap-danced in front of us for ages.

We stopped for morning tea and headed off to another corner of the park, enjoying co-starring appearances from red and grey kangaroos, and a bearded dragon.

A short drive to Monarto brought some other great sights – an owlet-nightjar, and comically evil choughs.

Birdwatching is a relaxing way to take in the bush – except for climbing in and out of cars, it doesn’t need to be strenuous; you wander after the birds at their pace.

We bought lunch at a bakery in Murray Bridge and ate it by the river, before heading to our final site: wetlands behind Mt Barker. This was teeming with life, including some serious birdwatchers. I met more of them on a half-day group tour – real experts revelling in sightings of rare shore birds, and one bloke who cheerfully admitted he had trouble spotting the difference between this little brown bird and that little brown bird.

At the end of the day, Steve emails you a list of the birds you have seen. There were 60, including four new parrots. I’ve yet to get a really good eyeful of the purple-crowned lorikeet, but now I know where to look.

Reviews are unannounced and paid for by SAWeekend.

This review was first published in April 2017 and had details updated in March 2021.

• Across SA
• 0407 398 234
• [e-mail]

• WHERE: Adelaide, Murraylands, Riverland, Yorke and Eyre Peninsula, Flinders Ranges, Birdsville Track.
• PRICE: Small group tours - Half Day (six hours) - $440 for two persons or Full Day (nine hours) - $550 for two persons. Larger group tours and multi-day rours available on request.