What Bird Is That?

What Bird Is That? stands as Australia's pioneering national field guide to birds, published in 1931 by Neville William Cayley. The book features 36 color plates of Australian bird paintings by Cayley, alongside black-and-white habitat photographs across its 340 pages. The publication was sponsored by the Gould League of Bird Lovers of New South Wales and remained the sole comprehensive Australian bird guide for nearly four decades. Its distinctive first edition featured green buckram binding and a dust jacket adorned with a kookaburra illustration perched on a red question mark. Through multiple reprints and revised editions extending into the 1980s, the book maintained its position as a fundamental resource for bird identification in Australia. Despite initial slow sales that led Cayley to sell his royalty rights to the Gould League in 1935, it became the best-selling Australian natural history book by 1960. The work represents a significant milestone in Australian ornithological literature, bridging the gap between scientific documentation and practical field identification for both specialists and amateur bird enthusiasts.

Readers note that this 1931 field guide helped generations of Australian birdwatchers identify native species. The hand-painted color plates remain clear and accurate for species identification. Liked: - Detailed illustrations show male/female/juvenile plumage - Organized layout with descriptions facing illustrations - Common and scientific names provided - Size measurements included Disliked: - Dated taxonomy/names need updating - Some regional variants not included - Limited range maps - Text can be brief compared to modern guides Ratings: Goodreads: 4.4/5 (12 ratings) No reviews found on Amazon Key reader quote: "The plates may be old but they're still useful for ID. This was my grandfather's birding bible and it's still helping me spot species today." - Goodreads reviewer Note: Limited online reviews available as this is a historical reference book that predates review platforms.

The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia by Graham Pizzey This comprehensive guide builds on Cayley's foundational work by providing detailed information about Australian birds with modern illustrations and distribution maps.

Birds of New Guinea by Thane K. Pratt, Bruce M. Beehler The book covers the bird species of the Australian geographic region's northern neighbor with detailed plates and taxonomic information.

The Birds of the British Isles by David Bannerman and George Lodge This classic ornithological work presents bird species with hand-painted illustrations and scientific descriptions in a format similar to Cayley's approach.

Princeton Field Guide to Birds of Australia by Ken Simpson and Nicolas Day This field guide continues the tradition of combining artistic plates with practical identification information for Australian bird species.

Birds of Europe by Lars Jonsson The book follows a similar format to Cayley's work with detailed illustrations and species accounts for European bird identification.

🦜 The iconic kookaburra dust jacket design became so popular it was later featured on Australian postal stamps 🎨 Each color plate took Cayley approximately 6-8 weeks to complete by hand, using watercolor techniques 📚 The guide was the first Australian bird book to use common names alongside scientific nomenclature, making it more accessible to general readers 🌿 Cayley came from an artistic family - his father Neville Henry Cayley was also a renowned bird painter who significantly influenced his work 📖 The book has sold over 500,000 copies across multiple editions and remains one of Australia's most successful nature publications of all time