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Birds of the Darwin Region is the first comprehensive treatment of the avifauna of Darwin, a city located in Australia's monsoon tropics, where seasons are defined by rainfall rather than by temperature. With its mangrove-lined bays and creeks, tidal mudflats, monsoon rainforests, savanna woodlands and freshwater lagoons, Darwin has retained all of its original habitats in near-pristine condition, and is home or host to 323 bird species. Unlike other Australian cities, it has no established exotic bird species.
Following an introduction to the history of ornithology in the region and a detailed appraisal of its avifauna, species accounts describe the habitats, relative abundance, behaviour, ecology and breeding season of 258 regularly occurring species, based on over 500 fully referenced sources, and original observations by the authors. Distribution maps and charts of the seasonality of each species are presented, based on a dataset comprising almost 120,000 records, one-third of which were contributed by the authors. Stunning colour photographs adorn the accounts of most species, including some of the 65 species considered as vagrants to the region.
Birds of the Darwin Region is a must-read for professional ornithologists and amateur birders, and an indispensable reference for local biologists, teachers and students, and government and non-government environmental agencies, as well as other people who just like to watch birds.
Preface
The beginnings of this book
Acknowledgements
Introduction
About this book
Abbreviations
Species profiles
Unconfirmed species
References
Index
Niven McCrie has written several journal papers and the very popular, self-published Finding Birds in Darwin, Kadadu and the Top End. He has conducted birdwatching classes at Casuarina Senior College and has led many birdwatching tours in the Darwin region for Australian and overseas birdwatchers.
Richard Noske has authored or co-authored well over 100 publications, including Birds of Groote Eylandt. He was Senior Lecturer in Biology at Charles Darwin University in Darwin for 26 years, during which he studied many bird species, and conducted several fauna surveys, of the Top End. Since then he has co-led bird tours to Arnhem Land and Papua. He is currently President of Birds Queensland and Chief Editor of the Indonesian bird journal Kukila.
"[...] Birds of the Darwin Region contains a wealth of information. It is not a book that will help visitors to find birds or to identify the local species. Instead, this is a guide for bird enthusiasts to discover more about the species and the history of ornithology in the region. It also serves as an important reference for researchers by compiling most, if not all, of the literature on observations made in and around Darwin."
– Damien Farine, Ibis (158), 2016
