The Owls of Australia: A field guide to Australian Night Birds

Abstract

The Owls of Australia summarises the features and biology of Australian nocturnal birds, which include some of the most impressive birds found in this region. The owls, and their look-alikes, the frogmouths, feature in this handy and fully illustrated book, which has been written for ordinary bird-lovers, naturalists, and ornithologists. The guide is particularly useful because of the difficulty of identifying some closely similar owl or frogmouth species. Volume 4 of the 'Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds' - from which the text derives, in a rewritten form - was the first exhaustive review of Australian owls, and contains high-quality colour illustrations of all plumages, including birds in flight. Eight of the colour plates found in the 'Handbook' are reproduced in The Owls of Australia. There are profiles of the biology and behaviour of each species. Stephen Debus highlights the unique or notable Australian owls, including those most at risk.