Into the Mabi Forest: Bird Watching at Curtain Fig National Park
By: Bronwen Scott
Tags: Nature, Queensland, Australia, Birds, Rainforest

Notes from Nature

Out and about in Far North Queensland

Curtain Fig, Curtain Fig NP, Yungaburra, FNQ. © Bronwen Scott

Rainbow lorikeets are shrieking in the black bean tree at the edge of Curtain Fig National Park. I hear the birds, but don’t see them until they move. Their orange breasts and green backs and the dark blue of their heads and bellies let them disappear among foliage and flowers. Other birds join them. Lewin’s honeyeaters fire off machine gun calls and brown gerygones ask ‘which is it?’ From deep in the forest, a wompoo fruit-dove recites its name.

Mine is the only car in the parking area. This is a rare occurrence, so I don’t waste time.

The star of this rainforest is a white fig (Ficus virens), a strangler that germinated high in the canopy on the branch of another tree and sent down roots that enclosed and gripped its host. Strangler figs — even ones as big and old as this — are common in the rainforest. What makes this Curtain Fig such an attraction is its unusual form.

Roots of Curtain Fig. © Bronwen Scott

When the dead host tree toppled against an adjacent tree, the strangler kept growing. Its roots formed a long curtain as dramatic as castle tapestry. The host has long decomposed, leaving the fig standing alone. If you want numbers: this 500 year old giant is 50 metres tall and has a circumference of almost 40 metres. It is, of course, still growing.

A boardwalk loops around the tree, allowing visitors to view fig and forest without leaving footprints. The ground slopes down to the east. If you turn your back on the star, you can look over the thicket of shrubs and through the trees. There is a lot to see.

Boardwalk, Curtain Fig NP. © Bronwen Scott

The first birds I spot are pied monarchs. It doesn’t take much effort. Two of them are foraging for insects on tree trunks, heads down, tails up, unconcerned by my presence. They fly past me to the next tree. They are so close, I hear the flutter of their wings. Their plumage is crisp black and white, neat as a uniform. Sky blue rings surround their eyes. They are exquisite birds, but I turn into a 6-year-old when I recall their generic name — Arses. No, I’m not sorry at all.

The pied monarch is one of thirteen bird species endemic to the Wet Tropics. Grey-headed robin is another. One of these sturdy understated birds hops around the forest floor, fossicking through leaf litter. For a moment, it perches on a vine to survey its territory. Like the pied monarchs, it is unperturbed by the human interloper.

Bower’s shrikethrush also occurs here. They are not shy, but you are more likely to find them by following their rich song or contact call than by scanning the vegetation. This same is true for the tooth-billed bowerbird. In the second half of the year, males construct display courts on the forest floor. They clear away all fallen leaves and replace them with those they have snipped from nearby trees. Only certain leaves are suitable. Some birds favour the long fronds of native ginger, others the pale undersides of bollygum. Male bowerbirds sing from a branch above their court. They adopt and adapt the songs of other rainforest birds, embellishing them with their own repertoire of whistles, trills and hisses. They have quite a work ethic.

Sometimes visitors look up into the canopy of Curtain Fig, see leafless branches and wonder if the tree is dead. But the fig is semi-evergreen, shedding its leaves in times of low rainfall and regrowing them after rain. It is not the only rainforest tree to do this. The gaps they create in the canopy let sunlight reach deep into the forest. Shrubs grow around the feet of forest giants. This combination of semi-evergreen trees and shrub layer characterise Mabi forest, which takes its name from the Ngadjonji word for Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo.

Basalt and buttresses, Curtain Fig NP. © Bronwen Scott

Mabi forest grows on the rich red soil of volcanic uplands, where the average annual rainfall is between 1300 mm and 1600 mm (51 to 63 inches). It once extended across a large part of the central Atherton Tablelands. Settlers first exploited the Mabi forest for its tall timber. Then they cleared it for dairy cattle and crops.

Now less than 5% of the original forest — no more than 900 ha (2225 acres) — is left. It persists as isolated remnants. Curtain Fig National Park is one of the largest remaining patches. Wongabel State Forest near Atherton is another. Mabi forest is critically endangered.

Car doors slam in the parking area and I hear voices. My time alone with the birds is about to end. Some people visit Curtain Fig to marvel at the tree, some come for birds or tree kangaroos. A few are here just to cross it off their list. Everyone has their own reason for visiting and everyone leaves with their own interpretation.

Mabi forest is too important not to share.