Bird Watching Guides
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Printed Field Guides for Birders
For the Australian birders there are so many choices available and sometimes can be overwhelming. There are various categories of field guides available in the market today.
The main category can be considered based on the size of the book. The sizes are range from heavy bulky to small, lightweight pocket guides. Most of the larger heavy books are comprehensive guides where one can find a full page allocated to a single species along with wealth of information including several illustrations or photographs. On the other hand, small light weight books also known as ‘pocket-guides’ are easy to carry in your pocket or backpack while on the field but may not cover all the species or may contain less information.
The other important category can be considered as whether the bird pictures in the book are illustrations or photographs. It’s easier to draw a bird into the position and plumage you want, but photos more accurately portray how a bird actually looks in the field. The guides with illustrations are more of an old school but preferred by most ardent birdwatchers. These illustrations are showing many different angles, plumages and sizes per given species in a single plate and are specifically designed to demonstrate key features of the bird useful in identification. One the other hand, the photographs have the advantage as it shows how the bird looks like in its natural environment and appears in real life with certain lighting conditions on a certain day.
However, most birders will end up having number of field guides discussed above in their toolbox.
Bird guides recommended by birdersHut.com.au are listed below.
The Australian Bird Guide: Revised Edition Paperback (1 August 2019)
by Peter Menkhorst, Danny Rogers, Rohan Clarke, Jeff Davies, Peter Marsack, Kim Franklin
The Australian Bird Guide is one the most comprehensive field guides available to the Australian birders. The 2019 revised edition published by CSIRO, provide colour illustrations of over 900 species which includes species accounts with artwork, updated maps reflecting the distribution of Australia’s birds and easier-to-use index. This 576-page book particular emphasis on providing the fine detail required to identify difficult groups and distinctive plumage. Comprehensive species accounts have been written by a dedicated team of ornithologists to ensure identification details, distribution and status are current and accurate. It is often said that The Australian Bird Guide sets a new standard in field guides, providing an indispensable reference for all birders looking to explore Australia’s magnificent and unique birdlife.
The book can be purchased from here.
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia – 8th Edition Paperback (25 June 2010)
by Nicolas Day, Ken Simpson
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia is one of the most comprehensive one-volume book of identification that shows all Australian bird species. Since it was first published in 1984, Simpson & Day’s Field Guide to the Birds of Australia has been one of the most – if not the most – respected bird guide in the country. This 392-page book published by Viking has sold over 500 000 copies. The guide contains 132 superb full-colour plates showing all Australian bird species; key points of identification using the latest classification system; distribution maps for all species; over 900 black and white line illustrations; breeding information; a vagrant bird bulletin; a core library list; and easy-to-use indexes. This eighth edition has been revised and updated, including some beautiful new plates.
The book can be purchased from here.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia 9th Edition Paperback (1 September 2012)
by G Pizzey, F Knight, S Pizzey
First published in 1980, The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia combines a depth and breadth of knowledge with beautiful, full-colour illustrations. Comprehensive and fully updated, this 9th edition of the Guide is more user-friendly than ever before. Species entries have been re-ordered and updated to reflect the new taxonomy, and the book has been expanded to include eighteen new species as well as a new section on vagrant species. It also features new information on bird family groups, more than 750 distribution maps based on the most recent bird atlas data, as well as a new Quick Find Index, to assist with quick identification of birds in the field. this is the essential reference for every bird enthusiast.
The book can be purchased from here.
Complete Guide to Australian Birds Paperback (19 November 2018)
by George Adams
This book is one of the most up-to-date guide to Australian birds available. Written in everyday language, with crisp, brilliant digital images taken in the wild, this authoritative guide is divided into 27 chapters, with each chapter opening with fascinating background information. The easily accessible information on each bird includes- common and scientific names, size, description, behaviour, preferred habitat, feeding habits, voice, status, and breeding. Distribution maps are arranged next to the photographic illustrations of the bird. A binocular icon indicates ‘hot spots’ to find particular birds. All wild birds that have been regularly recorded on the Australian mainland, Tasmania and offshore continental islands and oceans, including sub-species where the differences are recognisable in the field, have been included and photographed. This book will be enjoyed by beginners and seasoned birders alike.
The book can be purchased from here.
Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds: Third edition Paperback – 30 July 2023
by Peter Slater
The Slater’s Field Guide to Australian Birds is a guide to the identification of all the birds so far recorded in Australia and is designed for use in the field, to slip easily in a hip-pocket, backpack, or glove box. The illustrations have been planned to enable easy comparison between similar species. There are more than 750 species described and illustrated in 200 superbly painted plates.
The book can be purchased from here.
Australian Geographic Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of Australia 3/e Paperback (1 May 2020)
by Dean Ingwersen
photographic identification guide to 280 bird species in Australia, including the most commonly seen and rare endemic species, perfect for resident and visitor alike. High quality photographs from one of Australias top nature photographers are accompanied by detailed species descriptions, which include nomenclature, size, distribution, habits and habitat. The user-friendly introduction covers climate, vegetation, biogeography and the key sites for viewing the listed species. Also included is an all-important checklist of all of the birds of Australia encompassing, for each species, its common and scientific name, IUCN status. In this third edition many photos have been updated and species level taxonomy follows IOC version 9.2 (Gill & Donsker, 2019), while common names follow nomenclature of The BirdLife Australia Working List of Australian Birds version 3.0 (BirdLife Australia, 2019).
The book can be purchased from here.
Birding Apps and e-Books
There are some really great and useful smart device applications to help birders identify, log, and learn all about birds. These apps are the most direct competitors with the traditional paper field guides with the popularity of mobile phones and rapidly becoming more important than any other informational resource for birders in the field. These apps are available to download to your phone or tablet via Google play store or apple app store for a nominal fee. The most popular apps for the Australian birders are as below.
– Morcombe’s Birds of Australia This app is the eGuide of the printed book of Michael Morcombe’s Field Guide to Australian Birds
– Aussie Bird Count – by BirdLife Australia
– Smart Bird ID (Australia & NZ) – by Yellow Cardinal Inc
Below are some of the good e-Books available via Kindle.
Birds of Australia: A Photographic Guide Kindle Edition
by Iain Campbell, Sam Woods, Nick Leseberg, Geoff Jones
Birds of Australia covers all 714 species of resident birds and regularly occurring migrants and features more than 1,100 stunning color photographs, including many photos of subspecies and plumage variations never before seen in a field guide. Detailed facing-page species accounts describe key identification features such as size, plumage, distribution, behavior, and voice. This one-of-a-kind guide also provides extensive habitat descriptions with a large number of accompanying photos. The text relies on the very latest IOC taxonomy and the distribution maps incorporate the most current mapping data, making this the most up-to-date guide to Australian birds.
The e-book can be purchased from here.
Finding Australian Birds: A Field Guide to Birding Locations Kindle Edition
by Rohan Clarke, Tim Dolby
Finding Australian Birds is a guide to the special birds found across Australia’s vastly varied landscapes. From the eastern rainforests to central deserts, Australia is home to some 900 species of birds. This book covers over 400 Australian bird watching sites conveniently grouped into the best birding areas, from one end of the country to the other. This includes areas such as Kakadu in the Top End and rocky gorges in the central deserts of the Northern Territory, the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, rainforests distributed along the eastern Australian seaboard, some of the world’s tallest forests in Tasmania, the Flinders Ranges and deserts along the iconic Strzelecki and Birdsville Tracks in South Australia, and the mallee temperate woodlands and spectacular coastlines in both Victoria and southwest Western Australia.
Each chapter begins with a brief description of the location, followed by a section on where to find the birds, which describes specific birdwatching sites within the location’s boundaries, and information on accommodation and facilities. The book also provides a comprehensive ‘Bird Finding Guide’, listing all of Australia’s birds with details on their abundance and where exactly to see them.
The e-book can be purchased from here.
Checklists
A checklist is some what similar to a bird field guide which lists birds found in a particular area. These are very useful for keeping track of the birds you encounter during a birding trip. Most of the checklists are fordable and can keep inside the pages of your field guide or inside the backpack.
By Hamish McKenna
A checklist of birds found in Australia and its Islands. The birds are listed by species with common names. This book is expected to be used in conjunction with a bird identifying guide.
This checklist can be purchased from here.
Australian Birds Checklist Paperback (18 November 2019)
by Kiwi Blank Books
Make the most of your bird watching experience in Australia with this handy checklist. Make a note of when, and where, you saw each species. Includes introduced birds, vagrants and birds found on Australia’s offshore territories.
This checklist can be purchased from here.
Australian Birds Checklist Paperback (20 November 2021)
by Kiwi Blank Books
Enhance your bird watching in Australia, including outlying islands, with this pocket-sized 4 x 6 inch checklist that includes vagrants and introduced species. Each bird listing has space enough for seven sightings.
This checklist can be purchased from here.