The Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds is a book first published by Reader's Digest Services Pty Ltd of Sydney, Australia in 1976 and reprinted several times, with a completely revised edition issued in 1986. Description The book is small folio in size, 330 mm in height by 230 mm in width. It describes and illustrates bird species recorded from Australia, mostly at one species per page, using photographs sourced from the National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. The distinctive, mainly blue, cover features a photograph of a pair of olive-backed sunbirds. Before the individual species accounts which fill most of the book there is a foreword by Alec H. Chisholm and sections on “Where birds live” and “Naming and identifying birds”, while following the species accounts are chapters on “Rare visitors, escaped captives and unsuccessful introductions”, “Classification by order and family”, “Behaviour that distinguishes species” by Ian Rowley, “Migrants and nomads” and “How birds' numbers are regulated” by H.J. Frith, “Birds of prehistoric Australia” by G.F. van Tets, and “The mysterious origins of Australian birds” by Richard Schodde, before the indexes and acknowledgments. First edition The consultant editor of the 616-page first edition was H.J. Frith. A review by Simon Bennett in the Emu, the journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, said ”The Reader's Digest book is a co-operative effort, combining contemporary expertise in Australian ornithologywith the photographic excellence of the National Photographic Index of Australian Birds.” ”Almost every species is illustrated by one or sometimes two colour photographs. These are of high quality and no doubt represent the best published assemblage of photographs of Australian birds. The few poor quality and black-and-white photographs can be excused; the picture of the Paradise Parrot, for example, is the only one known and is of considerable historic interest. Although not all photographs were taken in the field, the techniques used convey a natural setting.” ”The text accurately summarizes much that is known of Australian birds. The list of contributors is like a Who's Who of Australian ornithology, which makes the reviewer's job difficult. The information is presented in an easily read style, free from jargon. It is good to see many ecological and conservational concepts in the text. The only major criticism relates to the information on distribution. Some of the maps are not consistent with the text (e.g. Black Butcherbird and Noisy Miners) or with published information.” The