Birds

Birds > Birds Index

Birds (class Aves) are a popular group of animals, with many avid bird watchers here in Australia, as well as around the world. Many tourists and travellers, purposely schedule their holidays in Australia around bird watching activities.

Check out our Birds Index (for thumbnail views of each group and species. There are also some links below to information and images provided here for your enjoy. We thank the many authors / contributors who have allowed us to share their photographs.

Class Aves – birds encompass a group of animals comprising about 9,000 species that are bipedal, feathered and warm blooded. They have fore-limbs that are modified into wings, although not all birds can fly. Of the flightless birds, there are over 60 extant species that include the ostrich, emu, cassowary and penguin.

The upper and lower jaws of birds are modified into a beak, which lacks teeth.

The class Aves is divided into two subclasses:

Archaeornithes
these are an extinct group that have toothed beak, long lizard-like tail.
Neornithes
these include both current modern birds and extinct birds such as the dodo that became extinct in the 17th century.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Sauropsida
Clade: Avemetatarsalia
Clade: Ornithurae
Class: Aves

Footnote & References

Ayeye thipe-akert‪e‬ – this free app created by Therese Ryder, provides a number of recordings of the correct pronunciation of bird species in the Central Australia region. The app also includes pronunciation of some plants/landscape. Therese Ryder has also released a published Arrernte language bird book.
Ayeye thipe-akerte: Arrernte stories about birds; Author Ryder, Therese C., author, illustrator; recorded and edited by Margaret Carew; Published Batchelor, NT Batchelor Press, 2017; ISBN, 1741313317, 9781741313314.
Sally Edmonds is an artist based in the Perth Hills. Her passion for birds and paintings are evident in her detailed works of realism, with each work portraying their own character, https://www.sallyedmonds.com/
Big City Birds, Spotteron Citizen Science – a project that focuses on selected bird species and their behavioural adaptatations – https://www.spotteron.com/bigcitybirds/info
Birdlife Australia, https://birdlife.org.au/
Australian Bird Identification (ABID), Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/aubirdid/

BirdsBird Index Apostlebird Australasian Figbird Australasian Gannet Australasian Grebe Australasian Robins Australasian Pipit Australasian Shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis) Australasian Wrens Australian Babblers Australian Brush-turkey (Alectura lathami) Australian Bustard Australian Chats Australian Magpie Australian Pelican Australian Pratincole (Stiltia isabella) Australian White Ibis Bassian Thrush Black-faced Woodswallow Black Swan Bowerbirds Brolga Brown Songlark Channel-billed Cuckoo Cinnamon Quail-thrush Cormorants Cuckooshrikes and Allies Dotterels Lapwings Plovers Doves & Pigeons Emu Fairy Martin Finches Freckled Duck Grey Fantail Grey Teal Honeyeaters Ibises Kingfishers Little Friarbird Little Grassbird Magpie-lark Masked Woodswallow Noisy Pitta Olive Whistler Paradise Riflebird Pardalotes Parrots Pheasant Coucal Pied Butcherbird Rainbow Bee-eater Raptors Rufous Fantail Redthroat Rufous Bristlebird Silver-crowned Friarbird Torresian Crow Waders Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida) White-browed Woodswallow White Capped Noddy White-faced Heron White-necked Heron Willie Wagtail Yellow-throated Scrubwren

AUSTRALASIAN ROBINS

AUSTRALASIAN WRENS

AUSTRALIAN BABBLERS

AUSTRALIAN CHATS

AUSTRALIAN RINGNECK

BOWERBIRDS