Comparison of "Where to find Birds" books of Australia (1 Viewer)

Has anyone knowledge of reviews comparing the various "Where to find Birds" books of Australia?
Or if not, which is the best of the available books?

Thanks
Carsten

When I went a few years back...I did research.... I eventually purchased Birds of Australia by Simpson and Day. Excellent book. I went to a nature observatory here in South Jersey and compared the two side by side. I was told the Simpson book was best and after comparison, it was..... My thoughts...best of luck.

I will return again to Australia often as my oldest will be living their with her Australian husband soon.

Take Australia in pieces, and don't try to do the entire thing at once, so return. I birded with a birding pal ...Melbourne and area, and then went to Hobart and saw all endemics to Hobart. So in a few weeks I picked up 130 birds to Australia. My girl was married in Melbourne so I had other activities to do in my 3 weeks.

Now...Darwin area is excellent....as well as North East section. I haven't birded either of those but if you bird the North East section, get a guide. Don't try that section on your own as it is too dangerous with critters (large and small) always around the birding areas. I know when my birding pal and I went out to the outback area in Melbourne , we encountered a poisonous one up in our wheel well, as well as a few poisonous ones just walking around. Do not bird any of the outback or marshes alone, as even the birding pals will tell you that...don't do it if you are not sure of the area. Just my sage....jim

The best Australian field guide is the new one by Menkhorst et al.

However, Carsten is asking about 'Where to find...' books rather than field guides. There's some comparison in these threads:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=308504
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=232436
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=283337
If I was only going to get one, I'd get the Dolby & Clarke book.

Andrew Whitehouse said:

The best Australian field guide is the new one by Menkhorst et al.

However, Carsten is asking about 'Where to find...' books rather than field guides. There's some comparison in these threads:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=308504
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=232436
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=283337
If I was only going to get one, I'd get the Dolby & Clarke book.

Click to expand...

Darwin and the so called 'Top End' has it's own guide and would be the one for that area.

I have them all but have yet to use any of them so haven't assessed them sorry to say.

Personally, I buy all site guides, sometimes there are aspects of one that are better than another and vice versa, often all can be utilised for different things and possibly some will cover sites that others don't.

I'd suggest deciding exactly where you want to go first and take it from there?


A

CarstenFog said:

Has anyone knowledge of reviews comparing the various "Where to find Birds" books of Australia?
Or if not, which is the best of the available books?

Thanks
Carsten

Click to expand...

The two general site guides are 'Finding Australian Birds.A field guide to birding locations' by Dolby and Clarke,published 2014 and 'The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia' by Thomas et al.,second edition published 2011. I used both of them on a two month trip to Western Australia in 2015,and found the Dolby and Clarke the more comprehensive.Half of the Thomas et al. is taken up with details of where to find individual species,whereas most of Dolby and Clarke covers individual sites by state.Incidently both are weighty volumes if you are travelling by air to Australia!
Tom Lawson.

Also worth mentioning that Tim Dolby has an excellent blog with lots of trip reports which form the basis of some of his bird finding guide. Usefully, the reports contain GPS refs, unlike the bird-finding guide.

lmans66 said:

I haven't birded either of those but if you bird the North East section, get a guide. Don't try that section on your own as it is too dangerous with critters (large and small) always around the birding areas. I know when my birding pal and I went out to the outback area in Melbourne , we encountered a poisonous one up in our wheel well, as well as a few poisonous ones just walking around. Do not bird any of the outback or marshes alone, as even the birding pals will tell you that...don't do it if you are not sure of the area. Just my sage....jim

Click to expand...

Okaaaay. That is strange advice.

I have lived in Australia for coming up 11 years. As well as birding I have bush-walked and trail run in bush areas regularly.

Whoever was bigging up the dangerous critters was pulling your leg I think. I have barely ever seen snakes. Yes, snakes are common, especially in spring / summer throughout most of the country, but they are shy and your chances of encountering one are fairly slim (there is no 'outback area in Melbourne' by the way, not even within several hours drive!) When surveying critters in the outback of NW New South Wales and Queensland and actively trying to find snakes we struggled.
Tiger snakes can be aggressive if you catch them out, but generally most snake species will know you are coming before you know they are there and scoot out of the area. Some of the sea snakes are dangerous but unlikely to be encountered birding
Crocs are a risk in the far north of Queensland and the Northern Territory if you wander to close to creeks /waterholes / mangroves. I assume this was driving the not birding 'marshes' comment?
Generally though 'critters' are unlikely to be a risk if you are even vaguely aware and sensible. Unless you are a small / medium sized mammal / reptile / bird.

The outback (true outback - dirt / sand road, often 100s of km / miles between small towns, little traffic, infrequent fuel / water supplies, roads impassible in wet weather) is a serious proposition and shouldn't be entered into lightly, this is true. But there is heaps of country and heaps and heaps of birding without going near these areas.

Not sure what North East section means. Far North Queensland? A great birding area and absolutely doable without a guide in many areas near Cairns / Townsville etc., you'd only need help going north of Cooktown IMHO. I have birded there solo and with 1 or 2 friends a few times.

1) The best current where to find birds book is Tim Dolby and Rohan Clarke's "Finding Australian Birds" by a long long margin. Both are well travelled and accomplished local birders, and the book is very comprehensive.

2) Prior to book 1. I used John Bransbury's "Where to find birds in Australia". Its getting on a bit now - the last edition was published 17 years ago I think! But a lot of the sites covered are still good birding spots. It has a wider range of sites than book 1, some mud maps of key areas. It lacks the handy 'bird finder' section species list with key spots to find that book 1. and book 3. have.

3) For the state of Victoria there is also "Where to see birds in Victoria" by Penny Johns and Sally Symonds. Tim Dolby edited that book. It's an good book for Victoria, although it lacks the handy 'mud maps' of the previous two. There is a similar guide for the Sydney area but I don't own it so can't comment.

For Cooktown to Townsville in Queensland there is also an older, out of print book by Lloyd Nielsen.

Niels

Thanks for all the answers. I'm planning a trip end november to early december this year and need a good book to find the best places, so I'll be getting the Dolby & Clarke book.

Thanks
Carsten