The Australian Bird Guide - Revised Edition + Audubon Bird Call - Birdwatching kit

Australian Bird Guide - Revised Edition

This Revised Edition includes updated maps, artwork and species accounts, reflecting current knowledge of the biology and distribution of Australia's birds. It features around 4700 specially commissioned colour illustrations of over 900 species, with particular emphasis on providing the fine detail required to identify difficult groups and distinctive plumages. Comprehensive species accounts have been written by a dedicated team of ornithologists to ensure identification details, distribution and status are current and accurate. A new easier-to-use index is also included.

The Australian Bird Guide sets a new standard in field guides, providing an indispensable reference for all birders and naturalists looking to explore Australia's magnificent and unique birdlife.

Audubon Bird Call:

The Audubon Bird Call invented by Roger Eddy in 1947 and still made by the Eddy family in Rhode Island USA. When twisted, this remarkable little birchwood and metal instrument makes a variety of sounds similar to wild birds. Each Audubon Bird Call is handmade and individually tuned, tending to work much better than standard "pishing".

It is the standard songbird call throughout the world and whilst it doesn't mimic a single specific bird, the sound it makes gets inquisitive birds to come in closer to check out the noise. In Australia, this works particularly well on honeyeaters, thornbills, fairy-wrens, emu-wrens, grasswrens, scrubwrens, gerygones, whistlers, and occasionally even Tyto owls will come in to check it out at night if you're quiet!

With reasonable care it should last a lifetime - just keep it dry. Can be carried in pocket, on a key ring, or worn on a lanyard.

The bird call's sound is produced by rotating the wooden cylinder against the cast zinc plug. By varying the pressure between the two surfaces while twisting back and forth, a variety of bird sounds can be accurately imitated. Originally conceived by songbird hunters in Europe, the bird call attracts birds by creating the illusion that other birds are in the area.

Recognised by multiple generations of birders and outdoors people, the Audubon Bird Call has been made and tuned by hand in the USA in the same way for over 60 years.