Basics: 1996, softcover, 331 pages, 433 species illustrated in color, range maps

“A Field Guide for the Casual and Beginning Bird Watcher” might be a fair name for this book. This is in line with the author’s conscious effort to “depart from the standard format used throughout the world” as stated in the introduction. Basically, this book arranges birds by color patterns such as “medium-sized black & white birds” or “birds that frequently flick their tails including aquatic birds” or “birds with a crest”, etc. This produces some odd combinations. On one page, you’ll find in-common birds to be a dotterel, honeyeater, and a whistler. Or, on another page, you’ll see a nightjar, fairy-wren, bushlark, pipit, and a finch. Care to take a guess what these latter five can all have in common?

Another difference in the book is splitting the information on an individual bird into two sections. Part one holds the illustration, description, habitat, and range map. Part two, later in the book, contains the status, habits, and “where to see it” notations. This latter bit about where to see it is not what I expected. It’s not always a geographic location or place; instead, many birds simply have “around fresh water” or “in all open short-grassed areas.” The last 34 pages of the book do contain actual maps, localities, directions, and facilities for the birder. A list of notable species are also provided with these sites.

The illustrations are simplistic and average at best. They show the general depiction of the birds. Only a small percentage of the birds have more than one illustration. These illustrations are small, too. All the birds are 3cm in length – storks, hawks, swallows, pardalotes, and frigatebirds – which means none are to scale.

The small range maps (2 x 1.5cm) show only the NE coastline between Cooktown south to Townsville – which is the focus of this book. Unfortunately, these maps are printed too close to the inner edge of the page. This requires you to forcibly open the book wider in order to see the entire map well.

This book tries to be a cross between a field guide and a location guide, but does not succeed well on either account. For a location guide, try Where to Find Birds in Australia by Bransbury or Where to Find Birds in North-East Queensland by Wieneke. As for a field guide, I highly recommend any one of the three books by Simpson/Day or by Morcombe or the later editions (7th) by Pizzey.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) Where to Find Birds in North-East Queensland by Wieneke
2) Where to Find Birds in Australia by Bransbury
3) Birds of Australia by Simpson/Day
4) Field Guide to Australian Birds by Morcombe
5) The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia by Pizzey
6) A Field Guide to Australian Birds by Slater
7) Birds of Australia by Flegg
8) Complete Book of Australian Birds by Reader’s Digest
9) Australian Birds: A Concise Photographic Field Guide by Trounson ( )