Lists all species of birds that have been recorded from the Australian mainland, Tasmania, island territories and surrounding waters.
Based on the authors' original book, "The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories", it includes any new species for which records have been accepted by the Records Appraisal Committee of Birds Australia. It also includes all extant and recently extinct (post-1800) native species, as well as new species, accepted vagrants and introduced species that have become established and continue to survive in the wild.The book provides brief explanations for taxonomic changes in the literature and for those adopted within it, including the citations for such work. Its geographical coverage includes Christmas Island, Cocos-Keeling Islands, Heard Island, Lord Howe Island, Macquarie Island, Norfolk Island and the islands of Torres Strait, and also Ashmore Reef, owing to the number of vagrant species that have recently been reported from there.
The book also includes vagrants from the Australian Antarctic Territory that have not been recorded elsewhere in Australia or its territories; incorporates extensive systematic and taxonomic changes since 1994; and, includes recently extinct native species as well as established introduced species.