Birds of Australia - page structure

The pages on individual bird species presented here are usually structured in the following way.

Headers

Each page has a navigation bar at the top. It allows for easy navigation between different sections of the website and between different bird pages, including a complete list of species.

The headers of individual pages have the number of the family group on the left (as a clickable link to go to the table), name, alternative (and aboriginal) names and size and weight of the bird species at the centre and a drop-down menu on the right. The drop-down menu offers the possibility to jump directly between pages for different bird species in one family group. Here an example (not clickable; use a real page header to test this):

The presence of the Aboriginal flag indicates that we have some (limited) Aboriginal information available.

Page contents

The page contents themselves are structured in various layers (only items on which we have information are included in a given page).

-. Similar species (if any)
1. Physical description
2. Taxonomy, classification link
3. Range, habitat
4. Sightings
5. Photos
6. Breeding information
   a) Season etc.
   b) Nest
   c) Eggs
7. Behaviour, habits
8. Food
9. Call/s

A lower-level navigation help holds links to existing page sections:

Physical description

Short physical description of the species, usually focusing on typical features such as plumage, dimorphism, eyes, eye rings, bills, legs, (webbed) feet, etc.

Similar species

Clickable thumbnail images of species similar to the one shown on the page.

Taxonomy, classification

We make no attempt here to establish the correct taxonomy and classification of species. A link is provided to Wikipedia instead.

Range, habitat, finding this species

Range and habitat information is generic and we make no claim that this is either accurate or up-to-date. For detailed information a field guide should be consulted or visit the appropriate Birds Australia birdline for recent sightings.

Sightings

Sightings are subdivided by race/subspecies; they are usually listed roughly chronologically; for a given location/area entries are also in chronological order.

Photos

Photos are sorted again according to a few basic rules:

If there are different races (=subspecies), these will form the highest-level subdivision. For each race of any species, the subdivision is always by:

ADULT

PAIR

MALE

FEMALE

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

If there are different breeding and non-breeding plumages, the order is always:

BREEDING

NON-BREEDING

Any of these sections can be subdivided again into:

1. frontal
2. lateral
3. dorsal
3. ventral
4. in flight

Each photo has a caption; many small photos hold links to larger versions of the same shot. The icon also holds a link to the larger version. Text in boldface Italics anywhere on the bird pages are clickable links. Clickable links almost always appear in italic font, also in photo captions.

Breeding information

For bird species of which we have obtained photos of a nest (or entrance to a nesting hollow) and/or eggs, or have been able to observe their breeding behaviour, we offer a summary of their breeding seasons etc., nest type and egg characteristics. There are the following subsections.

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Nests are only shown if accessible without disturbance. In the case of parrots, for example, who nest in hollows, only the entrance is shown.

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Eggs, again, are only shown if accessible without disturbance. No eggs in nesting hollows or other inaccessible locations are shown on this web site.

Behaviour

We observe and attempt to document certain behavioural patterns, but do not have any systematic knowledge of bird species' behaviour. Where known, a basic summary of key behavioural patterns is now given in a table.

Food, Diet

As far as known to us, information on bird species' food sources in the wild is provided.

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Where possible, typical calls are being recorded and included on the pages for individual species. We have chosen to present versions of the recordings from which background noise and other bird calls have been removed wherever possible.

Footers

The footers (both the generic one at the bottom and the one regarding bird pages) state the limitations of what the information presented here can, or is supposed to, do - see below.