The Australian Bird Guide – the most comprehensive field guide to Australian birds ever published.
Australia's avifauna is large, diverse and spectacular, reflecting the continent's wide range of habitats and evolutionary history. The book covers every regularly occurring species in Australia, including subspecies and rarities. Illustrations of more than 900 species on almost 250 plates, with particular emphasis on providing the fine detail required to identify difficult groups and distinctive plumages, make The Australian Bird Guide the most comprehensive guide to Australian birds ever published.
This revised edition, originally published in Australia by CSIRO in 2019 and made available to the UK market in 2024 via Bloomsbury, includes updated maps and artwork, reflecting advances in our knowledge of the biology and distribution of Australia's birds, plus fully updated text to ensure identification, distribution and status details are current and accurate, along with an improved index.
This book sets the standard for coverage of Australia's remarkable avifauna. It is truly indispensable for anyone looking to explore Australia's magnificent and unique birdlife.
Foreword
Alphabetical quick reference to bird groups
Acknowledgements
Constructing the guide
Identifying birds
Birding in Australia
A guide for birders to the evolution and classification of Australian birds
Key to abbreviations and symbols
Species accounts
Checklist of species
Glossary
Index
Peter Menkhorst is a zoologist at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Victoria. He is co-author of A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia. He received the Australian Natural History Medallion in 1998. Danny Rogers is a Melbourne-based ornithologist with particular interests in plumage, moults and field identification, and the ecology of shorebirds. Rohan Clarke is an ecologist and ornithologist at Monash University. He previously authored Finding Australian Birds.
"Like looking through a new pair of binoculars, The Australian Bird Guide makes it seem like you are seeing even familiar birds for the first time."
– Australian Birdlife
"The ABG – nine years in the making – is a first-rate field guide, one of the best I've seen. Should you buy this book if you've already got an Australian field guide? Yes, I'd suggest it would be a shame not to [...] Highly recommended."
– BTO Book Reviews