Finding Australian Birds: A Field Guide to Birding Locations

by Rohan Clarke and Tim Dolby

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 south west 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.

Key Features

• Up-to-date information on over 400 good birding sites in Australia, written by Australians with first hand knowledge of the sites
• An easy to understand travel companion for local and international bird tourists on Australia’s best natural sites such as Kakadu, the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru
• Reference guide for finding birds of Australia

• ISBN13: 9780643097667
• Publish Date: 1 May 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Inactive
• Out of Print: 21 September 2021
• Publish Country: AU
• Imprint: CSIRO Publishing
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 624
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

In the category of “books likely to only appeal to the .01%”, I give you this solid gold publication.  As I live in Australia for now, and I enjoy stalking its amazing birds with my camera (purely amateur hour and likely even more entertaining for the birds than it is for me), and I’m rapidly running out of ‘new-to-me’ birds in my area, I grabbed this on a whim when I saw it at my local bookstore.

It exceeded my expectations, to say the least.  Broken down by state, then by region, complete with common birds, not-so-common birds, descriptions, maps and suggested road trips to bird hotspots!  I fell in love with this feature, as it includes day trips, weekend trips and dedicated bird-stalking 10 day trips.  It then capped itself with a cherry on top by highlighting areas that also included interesting non-birding things to do, for those unfortunate spouses such as mine, who like birds well enough, but don’t find the need to stalk them, yet still find themselves dragged along for the ride.

I wish I could say this was part of a larger, international publication series, so I could urge my other bird loving friends to find their locals edition, but it’s published by CSIRO, which stands for The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation; it’s an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research, so unlikely to part of a greater publishing series.  But if anyone reading this is ever in Australia and intends to add some birds to their lists, you can’t go wrong picking this book up beforehand.