I live in South-East Queensland, Australia, and live in the suburbs Brisbane. Nowadays I want to add more observations of diverse wildlife (where I’m interested in birds) but in my opinion, bird diversity in the city is not pretty good. All I see are classic city birds like crows, magpies, noisy miners, butcherbirds, and rainbow lorikeets.
I’m looking for bird watching spots close to Brisbane where there is a greater species diversity and where you can observe more species of birds.
Have you tried eBird’s hotspot explorer?
Its not perfect since its biased towards more popular destinations, but I think a great start is to look for places near you with high species count (i.e. more red pins).
(I updated the title so that it better describes the specific question being asked.)
Oxley Creek Common is probably the best.
Sandy Camp Road Wetlands Reserve is great, especially this time of year.
Wynnum Bird Hide
D’Agulair National Park, I like The Gantry at the end of Selin Road
John Oxley Reserve often turns up some good stuff.
In the city it’s often worth checking out Roma Street Parklands and the Old Botanic Gardens/QUT
JC Slaughter Falls is good close to the city and can be good for night birds like owls and nightjars
Anstead Bushland Reserve often turns up more inland species that are rare in Brisbane
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. I’m an old north side boy so maybe a south sider might know a few more other places.
Out of town definitely head to O’Reily’s in the border ranges, Buckley’s Hole on Bribie Island and heading a fair way north Inskip Point is meant to be the best 1 sqkm of birding in Australia.
generally national parks or deep inside forest you will find stuff. But if you are looking for your species count, there are a gazillion insects waiting for you, even near your home.