The bird show at Mamukala Lake

Every trip to Australia turns into a safari. This is also the case in the Mamukala Wetlands, which will delight birdwatchers. The birdlife here is, in fact, incredibly diverse and spectacular: among the Melaleuca trees, belonging to the Myrtaceae family, a viewing platform has been specially constructed, allowing you to enjoy birdwatching in complete harmony with the surrounding natural environment, particularly the endless flocks of bizarre magpie geese, kites, crested jacanas, cormorants, fan-tailed flycatchers, bluish-bodied sultan fowls, orange-billed finches and kingfishers, which always choose to linger for long periods in the billabongs. It is, in particular, during the second half of August, the magpie geese that make the greatest impression, as these feathered hybrids (the scientific name is Anseranas semipalmata) all seem busily engaged in digging in the mud in search of water chestnuts, before taking flight all together, forming an immense V-shape in the sky that takes your breath away. Their plumage also takes on a brownish hue from the mud: for centuries upon centuries, as soon as the billabong dried up, the Aboriginal people would hunt the fattest specimens there.