Birds Of Kangaroo Island

Regional bird field guides are few and far between in South Australia and Chris Baxter's photographic guide to the birds of Kangaroo Island is the stand-out in this genre. This comprehensive account covers all 267 bird species recorded on the Island or offshore over the seas. It builds on the annotated list produced by the same author in 1989 and revised in 1995. The photographs provided by some of Australia's most highly regarded photographers beautifully illustrate the detailed descriptions of the birds, their habits, habitats, breeding, status, abundance and distribution on the Island. In addition there are recommendations on where to look for each species, with cautions about not getting too close to endangered birds and their nests. Chris Baxter has called on a lifetime of bird watching on Kangaroo Island and observations from visitors and residents to present an attractive field guide that is a must for all birdwatchers from casual observers to serious ornithologists.

Regional bird field guides are few and far between in South Australia and Chris Baxter's photographic guide to the birds of Kangaroo Island is the stand-out in this genre. This comprehensive account covers all 267 bird species recorded on the Island or offshore over the seas. It builds on the annotated list produced by the same author in 1989 and revised in 1995. The photographs provided by some of Australia's most highly regarded photographers beautifully illustrate the detailed descriptions of the birds, their habits, habitats, breeding, status, abundance and distribution on the Island. In addition there are recommendations on where to look for each species, with cautions about not getting too close to endangered birds and their nests. Chris Baxter has called on a lifetime of bird watching on Kangaroo Island and observations from visitors and residents to present an attractive field guide that is a must for all birdwatchers from casual observers to serious ornithologists.

The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020 is the most comprehensive review of the status of Australia's avifauna ever attempted. The latest in a series of action plans for Australian birds that have been produced every decade since 1992, it is also the largest. The accounts in this plan have been authored by more than 300 of the most knowledgeable bird experts in the country, and feature far more detail than any of the earlier plans. This volume also includes accounts of over 60 taxa that are no longer considered threatened, mainly thanks to sustained conservation action over many decades. This extensive book covers key themes that have emerged in the last decade, including the increasing impact of climate change as a threatening process, most obviously in Queensland's tropical rainforests where many birds are being pushed up the mountains. However, the effects are also indirect, as happened in the catastrophic fires of 2019/20. Many of the newly listed birds are subspecies confined to Kangaroo Island, where fire destroyed over half the population. But there are good news stories too, especially on islands where there have been spectacular successes with predator control. Such uplifting results demonstrate that when action plans are followed by action on the ground, threatened species can indeed be recovered and threats alleviated.

Extinct Birds was the first comprehensive review of the hundreds of the bird species and subspecies that have become extinct over the last 1,000 years of habitat degradation, over-hunting and rat introduction. It has become the standard text on this subject, covering both familiar icons of extinction as well as more obscure birds, some known from just one specimen or from travellers' tales. This second edition is expanded to include dozens of new species, as more are constantly added to the list, either through extinction or through new subfossil discoveries. Extinct Birds is the result of decades of research into literature and museum drawers, as well as caves and subfossil deposits, which often reveal birds long-gone that disappeared without ever being recorded by scientists while they lived. From Greak Auks, Carolina Parakeets and Dodos to the amazing yet almost completely vanished bird radiations of Hawaii and New Zealand via rafts of extinction in the Pacific and elsewhere, this book is both a sumptuous reference and astounding testament to humanity's devastating impact on wildlife.