The town that is very much like Alice

Cultured and exciting is Alice Springs! One of our first stops was the Desert Wildlife Park which is superbly presented - swathes of flowering wildflowers and aviaries full of birds that we haven't seen in the wild. They also have bilbies, a mala and a thorny devils and numerous other reptiles as well as a raptor show where owls and kites fly down over the visitors, just missing them by inches.

Barn Owl

 Brown Falcon

Orange Chat

 Princess Parrot

 Red Backed Kingfisher

 Desert Rainbow Skink

 Earless Dragon

 Budgerigar

 Central Netted Dragon

 Cane Grass Dragon

 Spinifex Pigeon

 Thorny Devil

 Banded lapwing

Black-winged Stilt

 White winged fairy-wren

 Western Bowerbird

This is one of the most amazing animal sites we've ever seen - it's an Australian Bustard making a display, presumably for mating purposes, to the female who sadly seemed to be ignoring him. He was about 3 feet tall. He kept throwing his head forward and then up and backwards, making a hoarse noise and ruffling up his neck feathers near his head. He also kept his tail feathers angled up against his back for the whole performance. I think the male looks similar to the female and so I don't know where all that flesh and feathers go, when he's finished his display.

Painted finch