Birds of Australia

 

Australia has about 800 species of bird, ranging from the tiny 8 cm Weebill to the huge, flightless Emu.

Many species will immediately seem familiar to visitors from the northern hemisphere - Australian wrens look and act much like northern hemisphere wrens and Australian robins seem to be close relatives of the northern hemisphere robins, but in fact the majority of Australian passerines are descended from the ancestors of the crow family, and the close resemblance is misleading: the cause is not genetic relatedness but convergent evolution.

For example, almost any land habitat offers a niche for a small bird that specialises in finding small insects: the form best fitted to that task is one with long legs for agility and obstacle clearance, moderately-sized wings optimised for quick, short flight, and a large, upright tail for rapid changes of direction. In consequence, the unrelated birds that fill that niche in the Americas and in Australia look and act as though they are close relatives.

Australian birds which show convergent evolution with Northern hemisphere species:

• honeyeater (resemble sunbirds)
• sittellas (resemble nuthatches)
• Australasian babblers (resemble scimitar babblers)
• Australian robins (resemble Old World chats)
• scrub robins (resemble thrushes)

Kinds of Birds

Australian birds can be classified into six broad categories:

• Old endemics: long-established non-passerines of ultimately Gondwanan origin, notably emus, cassowaries and the huge parrot group
• Corvid radiation: Passerines peculiar to Australasia, descended from the corvid family, and now occupying a vast range of roles and sizes; examples include wrens, robins, magpies, thornbills, pardalotes, the huge honeyeater family, treecreepers, lyrebirds, birds of paradise and bowerbirds
• Eurasian colonists: later colonists from Eurasia, including plovers, swallows, larks, thrushes, cisticolas, sunbirds and some raptors
• Recent introductions: birds recently introduced by humans; some, such as the European Goldfinch and Greenfinch, appear to coexist with native fauna; others, such as the Common Starling, Blackbird, House and Tree Sparrows, and the Common Myna, are more destructive
• Migratory shorebirds: a suite of waders in the Scolopacidae and Charadriidae which breed in northern Asia and Alaska and spend the non-breeding season in Australasia
• Seabirds: a large and cosmopolitan group of petrels, albatrosses, sulids, gulls, terns and cormorants, many of which either breed on islands within Australian territory or frequent its coast and territorial waters

Regional Lists

For comprehensive regional lists, see:

• Australian Birds, covering Australia and its territories
• Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, the HANZAB list for Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and the surrounding ocean and islands.

For Australia's endemic species, see:

• Endemic birds of Australia

Other regional, state and island bird lists:

• Western Australia
• Tasmanian Birds lists all 316 species found in the state or around its shores.
• Northern Territory
• South Australia

• Ashmore Reef
• Boigu, Saibai and Dauan Islands
• Christmas Island
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands
• Heard Island
• Kangaroo Island
• Macquarie Island

Organisations

National organisations

• Birds Australia, also known as the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, the leading Australian NGO for birds, birding, ornithology and conservation
• Australian Bird Study Association, for banders and other field ornithologists
• Birding-Aus - an Internet mailing list about Australian birds
• Bird Observation & Conservation Australia (BOCA), a major birdwatcher's organisation with 40 branches and affiliate groups

Australian regional and state organisations

• Australian Capital Territory
  • Birds Australia Southern NSW & ACT
  • Canberra Ornithologists Group
• New South Wales
  • Birding NSW
  • Birds Australia Northern NSW
  • Birds Australia Southern NSW & ACT
  • Cumberland Bird Observers Club
• Queensland
  • Birds Australia Capricornia
  • Birds Australia North Queensland
  • Birds Australia Southern Queensland
  • Birds Queensland
• South Australia
  • Birds SA
• Tasmania
  • Birds Tasmania
• Victoria
  • Birds Australia - Victoria
• Western Australia
  • Birds Australia Western Australia

Regional References and Guides

Important regional references include:

• The Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds (HANZAB), the pre-eminent scientific reference, a seven-volume encyclopedia.
• The Atlas of Australian Birds, an extensive detailed survey of Australian bird distributions.
• The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000, Garnett, Stephen T.; & Crowley, Gabriel M., Environment Australia, Canberra, 2000 ISBN 0-642-54683-5, a comprehensive survey of the conservation status of Australian species, with costed conservation and recovery strategies.

Full-coverage field guides in print are as follows, (grouped in rough order of authority):

• Pizzey: Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Pizzey, G, Knight, F and Menkhorst, P (ed), 7th edition, 2003 ISBN 9780207198212
• Slater: The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds, Slater P, Slater P and Slater R, 2003 revised edition
• Simpson and Day: Field Guide to Australian Birds, Simpson K and Day N, 7th edition, 2004 ISBN 0-670-04180-7
• Morcombe: Field Guide to Australian Birds, Morcombe, M, 2nd edition 2003, and complete compact edition 2004
• Flegg: Photographic Field Guide: Birds of Australia, Flegg, J, 2nd edition, 2002
• Trounson: Australian Birds: A Concise Photographic Field Guide, Trounson D and Trounson M, 2005 reprint
• Caley: What Bird is That?, Caley, N, 2000 edition

External links

• Birds Australia. Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
• Bird Observers Club of Australia. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.
• Australian raptors
• The Birds of Australia: in seven volumes by John Gould - all volumes fully digitised
• Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000 - PDF download

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