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There is plenty
to see and do around here, with Cassowary House being in one of
the best bird sites in Queensland. We have Cassowaries visiting
the garden almost daily, wandering in from the adjacent world heritage
rainforest. The local endemic bird of paradise, Victoria's Riflebird,
has display posts around the grounds and often comes to the feeding
trays. The colourful and elusive Noisy Pitta also lives in
the area and is frequently heard calling, though actually seeing
one requires a bit more application! Other local birds include Red-necked
Rails and Grey Goshawk which both breed in the garden,
Lesser Sooty Owl, Brush Turkey and Orange-footed
Scrubfowl, King Parrot, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot,
Topknot Pigeon, Spotted Catbird, Black Butcherbird,
Chowchilla, Lovely Fairywren, White-eared, Spectacled
and Pied Monarchs, and Macleay's Honeyeater.
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Mammals visiting Cassowary
House include the delightful resident musky rat-kangaroo, which
is an ancient kangaroo prototype easily seen feeding under the verandah.
A small colony of bats live under the main house and the impressively
large spectacled flying fox can often be seen at dusk. . We also
see agile wallaby and the giant white-tailed rat, northern
brown and long nosed bandicoot, antechinus, dunnarts
and pademelons, all regular nocturnal visitors. The rare striped
possum appears occasionally. A platypus lives in the creek
below the garden and can sometimes be seen from the bridge. The garden
frog list stands at 10 species and is rising. Butterflies are well represented
too, with the spectacular Papilio ulysses and Cairns Birdwing
Ornithoptera priamus often being seen.
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