Southern Cassowary – one of five seen at Etty Bay

I don’t recall looking for Cassowary on our first visit to Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands – we certainly didn’t see one. On our last visit, in 2017, we spent two days missing them around Mission Beach, before finally tracking one down in the carpark of Jindalbah, north of the Daintree River. This trip, with three expectant grand-kids in tow, the pressure was on to find them. Two visits to the current hotspot around Cassowary House, Kuranda, and a return visit to Jindalbah had failed to produce the goods, so yesterday we made a last-ditch attempt to find this magnificent but surprisingly elusive species. This time the chosen location was Etty Bay, another hotspot, an hours drive south of Cairns. To be perfectly honest I thought our chances were slim but we’d hardly passed the ‘Caution Cassowary Crossing’ signs when we encountered our first, wandering nonchalantly along the road. In total, we saw five individuals in the space of half an hour. Even at this prized location we know of some birders who have spent all day looking, without success. How can such a large and, in parts, brightly coloured bird, prove so tricky to find?