Seeking out Queensland’s mysterious cassowary, Australia

Ask most people who visit Australia what the name is of the large, flightless bird that lives there, and most will give the same answer – the emu. But there is another big bird to look out for, the cassowary.

Australia is home to the endangered southern cassowary. It is similar in size to the emu but has a striking appearance with its black body, red and blue face and neck and crown-like casque on top of its head. 

You won’t find the southern cassowary anywhere else in the world; it only lives in a small strip of rainforest on the coastal lowlands and rainforest-covered hills of north Queensland. Seeing one of these reclusive birds moving through the rainforest is a magical moment; their incredible appearance is a sight you won’t soon forget.

Southern cassowary natural habitat

Cassowaries spend most of their time in the rainforests of tropical north Queensland in a region south of Cairns between Innisfail and Mission Beach known as the Cassowary Coast. While there are several rainforest national parks and reserves where you can go looking for them, they also venture out of the forest to woodlands and mangrove areas to find food.

If you have been to Cairns to explore the Great Barrier Reef and want to go cassowary spotting, the road trip from Cairns to Mission Beach, which only takes a couple of hours, is a good option. Both the small holiday towns of Etty Bay and Mission Beach are cassowary spotting hotspots where they often venture out of the dense rainforest habitat. 

About the southern cassowary

Cassowaries are the largest animals in Australian rainforests. They stand 130cm to 170cm tall and can weigh 55 to 70 kg. Their bodies are covered in long black feathers, but it is their neck and head that are most eye-catching.

The unfeathered neck and head of the southern cassowary are blue with a drooping red/orange wattle. Another prominent feature is the helmet-like structure on top of their head. Once thought to be used for reproductive displays or defence, it was recently shown that the casque plays an important role in the bird’s temperature control.

Cassowaries are a ratite – flightless bird – that is most closely related to emus, ostriches and the much smaller kiwis. Rather than evolving before birds that could fly, ratites appeared in the fossil record 100 million years after the first flying birds. Cassowaries still show their reptilian heritage with scales on their legs.

There are three species of cassowary, but only the southern cassowary lives in Australia. The Northern Cassowary and Dwarf Cassowary are both only found in New Guinea. Unlike emus, the southern cassowary is a solitary animal, with males and females having separate home ranges, although the female’s home range tends to be much bigger than the males. 

Cassowaries don’t have a particular breeding season; when they breed is tied more to the availability of food. Males tend the nest that will have three to four large green eggs. Female cassowaries are slightly bigger than males and have a taller casque and a more brightly coloured neck and head. Despite being a bit smaller than emus, cassowaries are, on average, heavier; under all those drooping black feathers is a heavy-set, strong bird.

One of the main features of the southern cassowary is its diet. They eat over 200 types of fleshy fruit, and they play an important role in both the dispersal and germination of many types of seeds. This makes their droppings quite distinguishable. Besides being large, they are also full of often quite big seeds. Cassowaries are most active at either end of the day; this is the best time to try to see them.

How to find a southern cassowary

Cassowary encounters happen by chance. There are no organised cassowary spotting tours; the cassowaries just roam free in rainforests and along roadsides, and they even turn up on the beach and in people’s backyards. No time of year is better than another to see them, but you are more likely to spot them first thing in the morning and in the late afternoon when they are looking for food.

You could be doing any rainforest walk on the Cassowary Coast and be lucky enough to see one. However, there are a couple of locations where your chances of seeing a cassowary are higher. The first is Etty Bay, a small caravan park squeezed in between the beach and the forest-covered hills of Moresby Range National Park.

Etty Bay

There is a resident population of them at Etty Bay, and it is quite common to see them walking around the park and along the beach in the afternoons. You can also spot cassowaries on the drive down the hill towards Etty Bay. They can be seen on the roadside and even grazing in the backyard of houses as you drive in and out of Etty Bay.

Mission Beach

Another cassowary hotspot is Mission Beach; up to 100 cassowaries reside in the greater Mission Beach area. Cassowaries could turn up anywhere in Mission Beach. They are regularly seen along the roads leading into and out of the town, particularly around South Mission Beach. You can check at the local visitor centre for where they have most recently been seen.

As well as sightings around the town, Mission Beach has a couple of nature reserves and walks that are prime cassowary spotting areas. Lacey Creek is a known cassowary habitat; quietly walking through the rainforest loop track here in the late afternoon is a great opportunity to see them. Cassowaries are also seen on the picturesque Kennedy Walking Track that takes you through rainforests, along a beach and past mangroves.

Safety around cassowary

Cassowaries are armoured birds that can run at close to 50 kph, so when you do see one, keep a respectful distance. This is especially the case if you are lucky enough to spot a male with its chicks – they can aggressively protect them, so keep well clear. Cassowaries will generally be focussed on feeding, so you can quietly watch them from 5 or 10 metres away. If you do walk around the corner of a track and see a cassowary, you should quietly back away. If they do follow you, raise your arms or a stick above your head to make yourself look taller. This will generally make them retreat. 

Cassowary conservation

There are approximately 4000 southern cassowaries left in Australia. Their main threats are habitat loss and road traffic. Fortunately, at both the state government and community level, there is strong support to help sustain and grow southern cassowary numbers. 

The Queensland Government’s Cassowary Conservation Management Plan is an ongoing strategy that does a range of things to protect cassowaries. These include ongoing monitoring of cassowary numbers across the state, raising public awareness of cassowary behaviour, and changing road speed limits around known cassowary centres. There has also been a project to erect road signage in neighbourhoods where cassowaries are common, ensuring signs are available where recent cassowary road crossings have occurred and supporting the installation of cassowary passage structures like bridges and fences to keep the cassowaries away from roads. 

At the local level, community groups are focused on restoring forests by planting trees that will eventually feed cassowaries. Recently, there have also been examples of both the purchase and donation of farmland so that it can be returned to its natural state, which will provide food and habitat for cassowaries. The Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation (or C4) is one Mission Beach group very active in these projects. 

Despite these efforts across various levels of government and in communities, southern cassowary numbers in the wet tropics continue to slowly decline. Habitat loss remains the greatest challenge. 

Cassowary encounters summary

The cassowary is a large, flightless bird that is found in the rainforests of northeastern Australia. It is the third-largest bird in Australia, after the emu and the ostrich.

Cassowaries are known for their distinctive appearance. They have a black body, a long neck, and a crest of feathers on their head. They also have a sharp spur on each leg, which can be used to defend themselves.

Cassowaries are herbivores, and their diet consists of fruits, seeds, and insects. They are also known to eat small animals, such as lizards and snakes.

Cassowaries are solitary animals, but they will sometimes gather in small groups. They are active during the day, and they can often be seen foraging in the rainforest. The best places to see them are at Etty Bay and Mission Beach.

However, cassowaries are facing a number of threats, including habitat loss, hunting, and road accidents. As a result, their populations are declining.

There are a number of conservation initiatives working to protect cassowaries. These initiatives include raising awareness about the threats facing cassowaries and creating protected areas for cassowaries to live in.

This wildlife encounter was experienced by Curious Campers