This article presents descriptions of the habits, behavior,
appearance, and distribution of every species of bird that breeds in or
regularly visits Australia.
Species names
Every species of animal and plant is given a formal and
unique scientific name by which it can be known; no two species can have the
same name under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. In birds, a
species is a group or population of similar-looking and similar-behaving
individuals that interbreed in the wild and produce fertile offspring.
The scientific name of a species derived from Greek or Latin
has two parts, a second part or specific epithet that identifies the species
itself and a first part or generic name that identifies the genus, the group of
species to which it belongs. Closely related species are grouped in genera so
that their relationships may be understood at a glance. Thus the Long-Tailed
Finch, identified by its epithet acuticauda, is closely allied to other species
of grass finches in the genus Poephila: hence its full scientific name,
Poephila acuticauda.
The generic name always begins with a capital letter and the
species epithet always with a small one. The scientific name is, by convention,
always printed in italics except where it occurs in italic context. In some
cases, a triple name is used. The third name indicates the subspecies, or race,
a level of classification for birds of the same species that look different and
live in different regions. Unlike other zoological and botanical fields, in
ornithology, every bird also has a recognized English or common name.
Birds may be known by many common names and at times popular
names are superseded by others more widely used internationally. The most
frequent of these alternative names are listed under 'Other Names'. Birds and
animals are also grouped into many other hierarchies of classification above
the levels of species and genus. The Australian Magpie, for instance, is
grouped with currawongs and butcherbirds in the family Cracticidae. This family
is, in turn, grouped with approximately 33 other families occurring naturally
in Australia in the order Passeriformes, the perching birds, or songbirds. This
and 26 other orders are grouped in the class Aves, which comprises all birds. A
description of the orders and families of birds found in Australia is given.
Ornithologists are constantly reclassifying birds in the
light of new studies, necessitating frequent changes in scientific names and
their order. Most changes flow from generic readjustments to the position
of species, and from the discovery that distinctive populations previously
regarded as separate species hybridize and intergrade and so are one.
After each bird's name, the describer is credited, together
with the year of the first description. This shows that most Australian birds
were named over 100 years ago. Brackets around a describer's name indicate that
the genus in which the species is now placed is different from the one in which
it was first described.
Source of classification
The classification of species and genera follows the
forthcoming edition of the Royal Australasian Ornithologist's Union's (RAOU)
checklist of the Birds of Australia and Territories, published in the
Zoological Catalogue of Australia series by the Bureau of Flora and Fauna
(BFF), Canberra. There are some minor departures from the catalog in the
sequence of species, genera, and families, but the taxonomic adjustments
already reached by the compilers are incorporated here.
Authority for names
Scientific and English names used here also follow those of
the RAOU-BFF catalog. By convention and consensus, that list sets the standard
for Australian nomenclature and has done so for the past 50 years. The
recommendations of the RAOU's committee of experts-B. Glover, F. Kinsky, S.
Marchant, A.R. McGill, S.A. Parker and R. Schodde have been adopted in the
forthcoming catalog, and here, except in a few cases affected by the classificatory
change. To perpetuate popular but parochial names where they conflict serves
little purpose other than to destabilize nomenclature, stir controversy, and
certainly bewilder the amateur bird-watcher.
Size
The length or height of each bird is given. Measured from the
tip of the bill to the tip of the tail, it is rounded off to the nearest five millimeters.
Where the bill or the tail is unusually long, its form is stressed.
Identification
The bird's color pattern is described as working usually down
the back and then down the front to the belly and undertail region, ending with
the colors of the iris of the eye, the bill, and the feet. The technical terms
for parts of a bird's body are explained on the facing page. Different
authorities sometimes use different names for the same color, especially subtle
greys and browns, but the accompanying photographs provide guidance.
Some birds, especially males, have two or more different
plumages during the year. Dull plumage is often replaced by bright at the
beginning of the breeding season, and both plumages are described. Young birds
are called chicks or nestlings until they can fly. When young leave the nest,
they are said to fledge. Free-ranging chicks that are likely to be seen, such
as ducklings, are described as downy young.
Those of Northern Hemisphere breeding waders. however, are
excluded because they are never seen in Australia. So are the chicks of most
songbirds, because they are so naked. The next stage a young bird passes
through is its first plumage of true feathers. It is then called immature. This
stage may last for several years in some species, such as the Satin Bowerbird,
and the birds may pass through several plumage phases. Where there is a
distinct immature plumage, it is described briefly.
Voice
The sounds birds make can be important guides to
identification. They call to warn of danger, to keep in contact with one
another, to keep a flock together while feeding. These calls may be described
as zit-zit-zit, for instance, others are so elusive that they can only be
described in general terms such as 'harsh chattering sounds'. During the
breeding season, and even throughout the year, birds utter phrases to proclaim
their territory and attract a mate. Those phrases are often pleasant to hear
and, in the case of songbirds or passerines, are called songs. Wherever
possible, each bird's different calls and songs are described separately in the
passerines.
Nesting
Many birds have distinct breeding seasons, in the spring in
the south, for example. In the north other birds-seed-eating parrots and
finches-have their breeding geared to the end of the wet season, when food is
plentiful. Still others, in arid regions, may breed at any time after good
rains have fallen. Most birds build a nest, fairly typical for that species, in
a fairly consistent place and height. The form and structure of each nest are
described.
Eggs are also described by number, size, approximate shape,
and color. Eggs laid in concealed places are often white, whereas those laid in
the open are often colored and marked in a way that blends with their
substrate. The large end, which emerges first, is often more heavily marked.
The size of eggs varies; the average is usually given for each species, to the
nearest millimeter. The common clutch size is also given.
This is usually the same within a range for each species, but
where food is unusually abundant the clutch may be exceptionally large; and in
times of scarcity eggs may not be laid at all. Incubation and fledgling periods
are given wherever possible, the latter recording the period to flight, not the
day of quitting the nest by precocial chicks. If they are lacking, they have
not been found.
Distribution
Each species has its own range, determined by the
availability of suitable habitat and food. This is described in detail just for
Australia. Within their ranges, some birds are sedentary-they stay in one
locality throughout the year while others migrate between two places, and yet
others wander nomadically. Because Australia is so vast and sparsely populated,
knowledge of bird distribution has been sketchy.
To rectify this, the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
has just finished a five-year project studying the distribution of birds
throughout Australia and has produced an atlas of their ranges. The maps show
the ranges of most of the species and are based on the RAOU Atlas. These maps
are necessarily simplifications of complex patterns and few if any birds will
be seen at all places throughout their ranges. Places where species occur as
rare vagrants are not shown on the map but are mentioned in the accompanying
text. Maps have not been included for some birds that visit Australia only
occasionally.
These are mostly seabirds, which can be blown ashore anywhere
along the coast. For seabirds, only the coastal distribution is mapped. Many of
them, of course, range far beyond the coast. The overseas range of these birds,
and of others occurring beyond Australia, is summarized in the text. The maps
include the Tropic of Capri- · corn, state boundaries and, as reference points,
the sites of Adelaide, Perth, Broome, Darwin, Alice Springs, Cairns, Brisbane,
Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart. At the end of the distribution notes, the
approximate number of races is given, stressing those found in Australia.
What to look for
For most people, an interest in birds begins with identification
the pleasure to be had from putting the right name to a bird. But success in
identifying birds depends on knowing how to look at them. This is not simply a
matter of being alert but is a technique that can easily be learned. The most
important clues to a bird's identity point to which special attention should be
paid: size; shape, including the shape and length of the bill; general coloring
of the plumage and noticeable markings; behavior; call and song; when and where
the bird was seen. Because some birds visit Australia at only a certain time of
the year, when a bird is seen may be a clue to its identity.
The flight pattern is another. Is it direct or meandering?
Powerful or fluttering? Does the bird fly in short bursts or is flight
sustained? Then there is the method of flight. A bird may use its wings almost
all the time in flapping flight or it may glide on outstretched wings; it may
hover in one place or it may soar. Or its flight may be undulating a fairly regular
pattern of alternate flapping and gliding.
Further points to watch for are the way a bird
walks, runs, or hops and where and how it feeds- by diving or hawking, or by
probing bark or gleaning foliage. Shapes of Eggs Birds' eggs vary greatly in
their shapes. Some basic shapes are shown here, but there are many
intergradations. Birds of the same species usually lay eggs of the same shape.
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