Trip Report: Midwest and Pilbara - WA Grasswrens

Targets: Sandhill, Pilbara & Western Grasswren, WA Splits & Pilbara/Midwest specialties
Dates: 22nd - 31st July 2025
Guide: Louis Masarei (Birding Southwest)

The Midwest is sometimes a forgotten area of Australia from a birding perspective. For WA listers, we know it well. Close to Perth and with good access to some of Australia’s semi-arid and arid gems. But for Australian listers, a lot of these birds are found readily elsewhere and much closer to the east coast. Western Grasswrens for example, are seen at the top of the Eyre Peninsula not all that far from Adelaide but we have a population centred around the Shark Bay area. Sandhill Grasswrens are similar, seen around Alice Springs and Uluru but we have a neat and productive population that extends all the way west towards Mount Magnet.
The Pilbara on the other hand, is far more well known. Many Australian birders would have seen their first Grey Honeyeater around Karijini National Park. Most notably, since the Striated Grasswren splits, the Pilbara Grasswren can be found nowhere else in the world.
This trip was designed around these three Grasswrens with a smattering of WA specialties and Australian rarities to round it out.

The Pilbara on the other hand, is far more well know.

Pilbara Grasswren - The Pilbara

The day-by-day itinerary with locations are below and the eBird trip report can be found here.

Day 1: Perth - Paynes Find
Day 2: Paynes Find - Mount Magnet
Day 3: Mount Magnet
Day 4: Mount Magnet - Kalbarri
Day 5: Kalbarri - Shark Bay
Day 6: Shark Bay - Geraldton
Day 7: Geraldton - Cue
Day 8: Cue - Newman
Day 9: Newman
Day 10: Newman - Perth

**Banded Stilts, Pied Stilts & Red-necked Avocets at Port Gregory**

Perth - Paynes Find
We’d start things off with a few target waterbirds at Herdsman Lake before heading north through the wheatbelt. Herdsman lake has always provided the goods - Freckled Ducks, Hardheads and Pink-eared Ducks chasing each other around in a frenzy. Glossy Ibis completing the Australian Ibis trio, Australasian and Hoary-headed Grebes. Western Gerygones in the paperbarks and Little Grassbirds singing from the reeds. It’s always a beautiful and productive place to start a trip and get the species count rolling. We then popped into the Lake Monger carpark for some Striated and Spotted Pardalotes before hitting the freeway north. Piles of Emu lined the drenched paddocks on the side of the road and a quick stop on some drenched salt lakes had us chancing on Australian Shelducks and a feeding flock of Red-necked Avocet.

Pink-eared Duck calling at Herdsman Lake

Eventually we would reach the edge of the Great Western Woodlands in the Mount Gibson area. White-fronted Honeyeaters dominated the soundscape surrounding some flowering Eucalypts with Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters filling in the gaps. We heard Red-tailed Black Cockatoos moving through the open canopy and eventually they perched up not far from those flowers. On the ground, Southern Whiteface bounced around as their calls tinkled along in front of them. Red-capped Robins were a welcome addition to the dull colour palette. But we weren’t done yet for the day. Up the road as the Mulga took over, we’d be onto some Slaty-backed Thornbills as the light slipped away on our first day. We’d settle into a pub meal at the Paynes Find roadhouse with a list full of birds on our first day.

Mount Magnet & Sandstone
Returning to the Mount Gibson area, we’d brave the cold morning for some targets we couldn’t nail on the first day. A flurry of White-backed Swallows poured from a hole in the wall of a quarry we had parked in. It was certainly a spectacle and a great way to start the day. Southern Scrub-Robins called from the dense vegetation and Brown-headed Honeyeaters sat happily above them. A pair of gorgeous Golden Whistlers sat and sung nearby as the sun began to cut through and warm us all up. We moved into a more open woodland habitat and heard various thornbills calling. Chestnut-rumped Thornbills dominated, Inland Thornbills chimed in. Closely related Weebills flitted through the low canopy and eventually one of our targets, Redthroat, let loose a string of patented mimicry from a perfect exposed perch before skulking away.
We returned to the car but didn’t get far on our drive before stopping for a family of White-browed Babblers and a handful of beautiful Mulga Parrots. Another target for the morning beckoned though - Copperback Quail-thrush. We’d find a singing male at the top of a hill and got pretty good looks despite the increasing wind and threatening clouds. The afternoon was spent driving to set ourselves up for our first Grasswren the following day. Little Crows and Whistling Kites provided some extra padding for the day list out of the car window.
The weather was not going to cooperate. Rain, wind pushing that rain sideways, not ideal birding conditions and not ideal for finding what I think can be one of the more difficult Grasswrens to see well. But on we went into the sand and the spinifex. Standing in our rain jackets, fingers frozen to our binoculars, we got onto a pair of Sandhill Grasswrens very quickly. Surprisingly, they showed very well. Happy to sit in the rain for much longer than we were. We’d return to the road and the warmth of the Prado to defrost then onto Sandstone to enjoy a warm drink and pastry. The weather cleared up and we went out looking for more Grasswrens. We got onto a few more pairs but none sat and showed as well as those first ones in the rain. A very successful day despite the tough conditions. We’d go looking for bits and pieces on the road back to our accommodation. Crested Bellbirds, a frustratingly heard-only Black-eared Cuckoo, Grey-crowned Babblers bouncing Mulga to Mulga in front of us and a massive Wedge-tailed Eagle sat stoically in a big old dead tree.

Sandhill Grasswren singing in the sideways rain. Apologies for the lack of photos - a recovering broken hand limited camera use.

We’d head west tomorrow on the highway, not being able to take the tracks we intended due to the rain. That meant we could check some well-worn spots. Unfortunately, the exponentially growing Goat population was taking hold and these once productive Mulga lined creek lines had suffered from their success. At one location, there was nothing green until above the height of a billy goat standing on its hind legs. We still eventually managed one of the big targets for the region, a White-browed Treecreeper. This particular bird sat so still and so close to us. We were amazed that as we approached the bird it remained seemingly glued to its perch. We could have reached out and touched it. Easily the best experience I have had with this species!

Kalbarri
Banded Stilts were a huge target for our guests, having planned big trips around the east coast to try and find them. Lucky for us, there was a spot they loved along our adjusted route to Kalbarri. Alongside Pied Stilts and more Red-necked Avocets, about 500 Banded Stilts swam, flew and foraged around a causeway wetland. They’re always a satisfying sight, and so is an unexpected Crake. Out of the vegetation, right next to the car wandered an Australian Spotted Crake. Over the next little while it became a bit of a show-off. At times it paraded almost at our feet and others it raced around into and out of cover at warp speed. Over the dunes we’d have a little look around the ‘town’ of Gregory and spot some Crested Terns and an Osprey from the beach.
After a well-earned meal and a very comfortable sleep in Kalbarri, we would of course be back to birding. The offshore wind was as stiff as it gets, and it made birding along the cliffs a chilling experience. There were some Autralasian Gannets, as always, braving the conditions below us. Fieldwrens would be our target in the low heath. These particular birds at this location are at a crossover for what is currently considered two separate species - Western Fieldwren and Rufous Fieldwren. It’s a tenuous species split at best, with the most recent published science indicating they do not even warrant subspecies status let alone full species. Regardless, based on call, habitat and some of those tenuous physical features, the birds here go down as Western Fieldwren for me. Just round the corner near the gorges - Rufous Fieldwren. And despite all of that, the birds, whatever they are classified as, showed very, very well.
The rest of the day around Kalbarri had us wandering along drainage lines. North of town we had Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo, Pallid Cuckoo as notable singing presences for this time of year. The sandy substrate was covered in colour from some early flowering plants as well. A pleasure to see after the country decimated by the hooves of goats further inland. Blue-breasted Fairywrens showed poorly amongst the flowers, while Purple-backed Fairywrens perched up in clear view. A flock of Pelicans flushed from the bank by a tourist boat soared above us as did a light morph Little Eagle amongst all the Kites. As we strolled back, a little flock of Rock Parrots flushed from the banks of the Murchison River. I’ve never seen them in this area, and it was a pleasure despite the brief views. We’d go for a wander around some of the popular gorge sites hoping for some more raptors and were rewarded with a fly-by at eye level from a Collared Sparrowhawk. Our success with raptors continued as we stopped roadside on our journey north for a soaring Square-tailed Kite on a background of a clear blue sky.

Shark Bay
We’d roll into Monkey Mia and hold ourselves back from going looking for Grasswrens immediately. We had to check-in to the resort and our ocean view rooms first. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening, and the Western Grasswrens agreed. They bounced around the carpark with the confidence of a Singing Honeyeater. Singing and playing, feeding each other, even copulating in one brief moment. A small family feeling right at home. We stayed and watched the show until the sun set completely. This was likely the most intimate birding experience of the trip and the photos hopefully do it just a bit of justice.

The next morning we’d be racing the rain again. Those Southern Scrub-Robins finally came out from their dense habitat and showed off singing and darting around us. Western Grasswrens remained in fantastic numbers as we strolled through the dunes. A few shorebirds were a nice surprise on the low-tide flats. Namely, Bar-tailed Godwit and Great Knot wandered among the Red-capped Plovers. Up the red dune we’d hear some Chiming Wedgebill, another big target for the trip. A few of these wonderful birds tussled at the base of the bushes and ran up the fine stems to sing. They settled down, perhaps in anticipation of the rain and so we descended the dune for breakfast.

The rain stopped as we arrived at the lookout for Little Lagoon Creek. We spotted a completely drenched Kingfisher, looking confusingly like a Torresian Kingfisher which would be on the very outskirts of their range. As it dried, it revealed some plumage features of the much more likely Sacred Kingfisher. A Nankeen Night-Heron skulked through the base of the mangroves; a Little Egret and a Great Egret perched nicely together for comparison and an Eastern Reef-Egret patrolled the shores at the end of the creek to fill in the set of Ardeidae (Heron/Egret family) in the area.

Cue
From our transition day through Geraldton, we headed back east. Once again put slightly off track by the rainfall on dirt roads, we found an interesting track to take us towards Nallan Station and Cue. Some beautiful Banded Lapwings patrolled the stony plains on the side of the road and our stopover point at the smallest meteorite crater in Australia (Dalgaranga Crater) provided us with brief views of Bourke’s Parrot, some confiding Varied Sittellas and an abundance of Crested Bellbirds. Onwards we would stop at a huge stand of flowering Eremophila. Briefly, we saw Pied Honeyeaters and hoped for Black Honeyeaters. Instead, we were rewarded with a group of Western Quail-Thrush that were another big target for the trip. The jetted around us and called at the edge of our hearing while we settled in for some very close views.
A brief visit to Walga Rock had us amazed at some of the ancient artwork including a European ship thought to be associated with the Batavia.
As the day darkened and the wind came up, we’d roll into our accommodation for the night and hang out with a pair of Western Bowerbird parents and their plump, dopey young one.
After the coldest night of the trip, we had arguably the coldest morning of the trip. We went out looking for Banded Whiteface. They didn’t show up quickly. A friendly trio of Western Quail-Thrush entertained us in the meantime, as did a gorgeous male Hooded Robin. It took us to have a break for breakfast that included a tyre change, to hear them in the distance and track them down. I’d say we were lucky that the tyre went flat. We watched them forage amongst the stones on the desolate landscape they seem to prefer before they departed to continue their mysterious existence elsewhere.

A Western Quail-thrush demonstrating their ability to completely disappear.

Newman
On our way north to Newman and the Pilbara proper, we stopped for two notable things. One, a Black-breasted Buzzard soaring at relatively close range - a new bird for those on the trip. Two, a White-necked Heron shuffling around a cattle-ruined pool and nailing fish at very close range.

**White-necked Heron with its second fish in as many minutes.**

Delays at the check-in counter meant we ran out of light to go and find the Pilbara Grasswrens we could hear that evening but not to worry, we were inundated by them the following morning. About eight of them could be heard from the one spot on top of a ridge. We hung out with them for quite a while that morning, getting very well acquainted and comfortable with them. Some Grey-headed Honeyeaters came to interrupt on a few occasions but were welcomed openly before being chased off by Yellow-throated Miners. A lone but very healthy-looking Dingo sauntered along the cliff edge across the gorge from us. The day was off to a good start.
We set off for the rest of the day looking for more birds with ‘grey’ in their name with mixed success. The weather didn’t help us with the wind once again coming up and making birding difficult. Despite that we came across a pile of new birds for the trip. Red-backed Kingfisher and Crimson Chats being highlights. A beautiful male White-winged Fairywren sang from its perch in the same bush as a family of Purple-backed Fairywrens while Zebra Finches jumped around below.

A trip to a faithful spot for Grey Honeyeater proved successful only in that we heard Inland Thornbills imitating them, but this very productive area held a very healthy population of Mistletoebirds feeding on their namesake and chasing each other round approaching the speed of light. The return back down the highway amongst the ore trucks was slow but we topped it off with some Star Finches settled away in the weedy Mesquite shrubs that they and every other small passerine seem to adore.
The weather was odd, or something was. A usually very well patronised waterhole (truck wash) was only visited by two Zebra Finches and a bold Euro throughout our admittedly not very patient stakeout. Some more White-winged Fairywrens and a solitary Spinifex Pigeon made up the rest of the ground dwellers as an enormous flock of Little Corella flew back to their roosts from wherever they had been causing trouble.
Our last morning we had to squeeze in a bit more birding before getting to the airport. Some revisited spots provided us with an Australian Hobby, a handful of Black Kites and at a favourite little wetland outflow we capped the trip off with some Yellow-billed Spoonbills, Great-crested Grebe, Black Swans with cygnets and a pile more Star Finches.
All in all, we had a very successful trip despite some pretty rough weather throughout. We saw 157 species including a huge chunk of the Australian target list for our group. This trip will be formalised into an itinerary with upcoming dates in the future.
If you'd like to experience this awesome trip, get in touch!

Trip Report: Midwest and Pilbara - WA Grasswrens

Trip Report: Dirk Hartog - Midwest Subspecies