Wing into spring - Bird book recommendations

November 2021

The City of Unley Community and Culture team celebrated the week of the Aussie Backyard Bird Count in October with Wing into Spring 2021. Our team includes our community centres, libraries, museum and swimming centre. We in the Libraries offered some bird book recommendations.

Bird Resources

Finding the book or resource that works best for you is one of the challenges when embarking on a new interest. When it comes to identifying birds, there are a plethora of books out there. But although you can have every book you want, taking them all with you either into the field or even chucked in the back of your car is not usually viable. I’ve found it is good to have a local focussed book along with a more continent-wide resource. My two choices to take with my camera are these:

Fleurieu Birds

by Peter Gower

An excellent resource for all birds to the south of us and you can find most Adelaide birds in this great publication as well

The Complete Guide to Australian Birds

By George Adams

For a more country-wide listing, I’ve found this one to be my go-to out of all the handbooks out there.

Unley Libraries stocks both of these (click on the links to go to our catalogue) and I highly recommend them.

- Ruth, The City of Unley Libraries

Recommended bird books for kids

Busy Beaks by Sarah Allen Spend the day with Australia's most vibrant and unique feathered friends. Full of splashing shorebirds, chattering cockatoos, parading penguins and greedy galahs, this book is the perfect introduction to birds of all shapes and sizes.
	Emus under the bed by Leann J Edwards Beautifully illustrated, this is a lively and unique story about a little girl and the fun she has at her Auntie Dollo's house.
Little bird's day by Sally Morgan, Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr A simple, universal story of a day in the life of Little Bird as she sings the world alive, flies with Cloud, travels with Wind, nestles with Moon and dreams of flying among the stars.
	Bin chicken by Kate & Jol Temple, illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh Diving in dumpsters, traipsing through trash! Rummaging through rubbish, making a splash! 'Revolting!' they snort, starting to sicken, 'Trash Turkey! Dumpster Duck! One bird's trash is another bird's treasure - find out why the ibis is the queen of the rubbish pile!
Mopoke byPhilip Bunting This is a Mopoke. Mopoke loves peace and quiet. He is about to find out that you can't always get what you want.