Mount Jerusalem National Park is 50km inland from Byron Bay and lies within the International Birdlife Nightcap Range Important Biodiversity Area (IBA). It is part of the outer rim of the the Tweed/Mount Warning volcano caldera, a volcano that was active 23 million years ago. Water runoff from the park drains into three catchments, the Tweed River, Brunswick River and the Wilson/Richmond River.
On a short walk from the car park, down Middle Ridge Road, we heard Brown Cuckoo-Doves, Spotted Pardalotes, White-throated Scrubwren, Crimson Rosellas, Brown Thornbills, Golden Whistlers, a Grey Shrike-thrush, and saw the two Pacific Baza photographed below. Middle Ridge Road is on rocks formed in the Triassic period, the Chillingham Volcanics which have reappeared as the newer volcanic rock above them was eroded away. It has open wet sclerophyll eucalypts on one side and a more rainforest type flora on the other.
A Pacific Baza, still in juvenile plumage, seen on Middle Ridge Road in Mount Jerusalem National Park.
The two juvenile Pacific Bazas together.