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The idea that a bird is good news and needs all our support is probably the only thing amateur birdos, professional zoologists and 'birdscapers' – people who redesign their gardens to support birdlife – have in common. But together they form a conservation community that cares about the future of birds and their habitats, who are working to heal the damage wrought by those who don't notice birds.
What Birdo is That? reveals how bird-people in Australia have gone about their craft across the years. Its stories come from wild places – at sea as well as on the land – from dusty archives, from restoration projects, gardens and urban wastelands. They are human stories, but the birds themselves interject and interrupt any self-important anthropocentrism. They educate. They counter the imperialism of the ever-expanding economies of the new millennium. They turn up in unexpected places, giving surprise and joy. This field guide to Australia's bird-people provides a basis for understanding the complex relationship between people and birds in a land of extremes at the forefront of changing climate and habitats.
Libby Robin is an independent non-fiction writer and prize-winning author whose work explores museums and environmental ideas. She works with museums in Australia, Germany, Estonia and Norway. Her books include The Flight of the Emu (2001), How a Continent Created a Nation (2007) and The Environment: A History of the Idea (2018).
"I like this book. A lot. And I like the author. I don't know her, but I like the way she writes. And it's lovely to read a book you like, written by someone whose name sounds like a nom de plume [...] [Robin] has a uniquely Australian way of looking at those whose passion, interest and even careers centre on birds."
– Inside Story
"What Birdo is That? is filled with astonishing, funny and also sobering anecdotes about the avian world itself [...] a book about how we highly flawed humans attempt to observe, protect, classify and name the birds we love."
– The Saturday Paper
