“This is a beautiful guide to all the birds of Australia. I would definitely take this book on a trip to Australia, despite the large size and hefty weight. It would be an invaluable resource to use while in a hotel or when in a vehicle while out birding.

Portability:

* A very large field guide …larger than the North American Sibley guide.
* The volume is over five hundred pages

Quality:

The illustrations are very well done by several different artists
* The extensive text descriptions for each species are comprehensive and useful
* The volume seems to be well bound and sturdy. I love the attached ribbon to use as a place marker.

Features:

* Field marks are not depicted in the plates, however the distinctive field markks are italicised in the descriptions.
* The inside cover has two facing pages that provide a visual quick reference of the different bird groups and includes small illustrations of bird types along with their page number to easily find a bird without having to refer to the index. This should be very handy for looking up birds quickly.
* The quick reference inside the front cover organizes the birds into 3 groups:
* marine and coastal birds
* freshwater birds
* land birds
* Each of the bird groups is denoted by a color that is printed on the edges of each page, so it is easy to thumb a group within the guide.
* Another nice feature is a small circle for each species providing abundance information:
* a full circle indicates the bird is very abundant and very easy or ubiquitous to see
* 3/4 of a circle equates to birds that are common/easy to see
* 1/2 of a filled circle means that they are moderately common and birders have a reasonable chance of sighting one
* rare and uncommon birds are indicated by a 1/4 filled
* an empty circle is used for very rare/very difficult to see birds

Usabilty:

* Extensive descriptive information including measurements description of the voice and special notes for each species. Plates and description opposing pages for each of the birds with maps along the bottom of the page for each species depicted.
* Art work on each plate is laid out consistently so that the main images of adult birds are on the far right, and juveniles on the far left, with other recognizable plumages for breeding and and immature birds shown in the middle. Whenever possible rarities are shown at the bottom of the plate below other species that are more likely to be seen. Scale is maintained across a series of plates. At the bottom of each page there is a scale bar reference to help identify the size of the birds illustrated. Illustrations are based on careful measurements and provide reliable indication of a birds size.

Completeness:

* The book includes 249 color plates with 4000 so perv images.
* Every species in Australia is covered more than 900, including subspecies and rarities”

Field Guide Review: The Australian Bird Guide
June 6, 2017
George Mayfield (Field Guide Reviews)

“In all truth, this could be the most pointless review I’ve ever written. Everyone is going to buy this book and everyone is going to love it. Enjoy!”

The Australian Bird Guide
April 25, 2017
Chris Watson (The Grip)

“The Collins Guide down under. In terms of format, content, quality, and overall feel, this new guide is very similar to the Collins Bird Guide (aka Birds of Europe). That is a very high compliment. This is the field guide to have with you in Australia. And by “have with you”, I mean in the car. It’s a little too large and heavy to comfortably carry. But that’s not a drawback in my book.”

New Book: The Australian Bird Guide
May 25th, 2017
Grant McCreary (The Birder’s Library)