Most of these Daintree Wildlife images are my own. Some like Lloyd Nielsen's Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher were given to me more than 10 years ago. Scott Elowitz's Azure Kingfisher is more recent. David Gifford caught the Great-billed Heron in flight back in 1996 and David Hollands took the Little Kingfisher in our backyard for his book on Kingfishers. The Blue-winged Kookaburra was taken by an old mate Rick Powell. The Great Egret is courtesy of a Japanese gentleman known as $hige and the Amethystine Python by Bent Christiansen from Sweden. The images are in a montage to protect the copyright of the photographers.

In 1985 I saw a Sacred Kingfisher up close at Daintree, its beauty is etched in my memory. The opportunity to do something about it didn't happen until 1989 when, working as a guide,  I came from working on the Great Barrier Reef to Daintree. This time the inspiration was an Azure Kingfisher. Those two images stimulated my guide training more than any other and I have invested the last 17years refining our early morning outings. The support from Denise and people like Barney Booth, Yvonne Robinson, James Bailey, Hans Eyman, Christoph Imboden and Graham Pizzey makes it all worthwhile.

Denise and I haven't really left Daintree and after visiting many countries and other Australian states on wildlife expeditions I consider the Daintree River one of the best consistent wildlife venues around.

Chris Dahlberg
March 2006