Thomas, Thomas, Andrew & McBride, "The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia" - A WA-centric Review with Additions/Errata

This book has been well reviewed elsewhere (see below), so we will largely restrict this review to a WA perspective, and add some (hopefully useful) comments to supplement the WA site and species listings in this recently released 2nd edition. We’ll endeavour to keep this page updated as things change and we collect more info.

Things don’t start well for the west when the opening paragraph of the WA section throws an outrageous slur against WA’s “relatively few” endemics. I presume they don’t refer to regional endemics, since with now 15 endemic species south-west WA is arguably second only to tropical Queensland as an endemic bird area within Australia. I guess they mean “fewer of Australia’s endemics are found in WA” – a fair cop. And I guess an obsession with endemics can be excused in a book that is mainly targeted at tickers and twitchers!

All-in-all this is well-produced and attractive book, and there is no doubt this is a much better book than both its 1st edition, and the dated and less accurate alternatives of Bransbury’s “Where to find birds in Australia” and (for WA) Noela Marr’s “Where to find birds in Western Australia”. However there are a few things about it that irk.

The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia - cover page.