The Adelaide Ornithologists' Club (AOC) was founded by Alan Lendon, a leading surgeon and prominent aviculturist, in 1960, as a breakaway group from the South Australian Ornithological Association, with John Neil McGilp as its first President. It followed dissension within the SAOA about the live bird export trade, in which the Adelaide Zoo was a leading player and Lendon a member of the Zoo Council. The AOC was formed with the explicit aim of promoting the study of birds. The pattern established in the early years and still maintained is that the club has an evening meeting and a Sunday outing each month except for December and January. Meetings typically include an address on a subject of relevance to ornithology, a section called bird notes devoted to recent sightings of interest, and "bird of the month", a section presented by a club member and offering a brief view of a particular bird species or bird family. Sunday outings visit local bird watching spots for identification in the field. Once a year there is a Spring Excursion for a week to an area further afield. Each year the club produces a magazine entitled "Bird Talk" with summaries of the outings and other articles about birds. The club welcomes new members. Its web site's URL is www.adelaideornithologists.com.
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native bird species of Australia and adjacent regions, making it Australia's oldest national birding association. In 1996, the organisation adopted the trading name of Birds Australia for most public purposes, while retaining its original name for legal purposes and as the publisher of its journal, the Emu. In 2012, the RAOU merged with Bird Observation & Conservation Australia to form BirdLife Australia.
Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of BirdLife Australia. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia. The current editor-in-chief is Kate Buchanan. The journal was published quarterly for the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in print and online by CSIRO Publishing until 2016. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2012 impact factor of 1.895, ranking it 4th out of 22 journals in the category "Ornithology".
Clive Dudley Thomas Minton, AM was a British and Australian metallurgist, administrator, management consultant and amateur ornithologist. His interest in birds began in childhood.
Roy Percy Cooper (1907-1976) was an Australian accountant and amateur ornithologist. He was a Council member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), serving as President 1960–1961, and Editor of the Emu 1960–1962. He was also President of the Bird Observers Club 1954-1955 and editor of its journal, the Australian Bird Watcher 1959–1976. Books he wrote include:
Alan John "Jock" Marshall was an Australian writer, academic and ornithologist.
Wilson Roy Wheeler MBE FRAOU (1905-1988) was an Australian postman and professional ornithologist. He was an active bird bander and was convener of the Altona Survey Group, later part of the Victorian Ornithological Research Group. In 1965 he was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), President 1964–1965, and made a Fellow of the RAOU in 1971.
Herbert Thomas Condon was an Australian museum curator and ornithologist. He was born in Melbourne and attended the University of Adelaide. In 1929, Condon joined the scientific staff of the South Australian Museum; he was promoted to Assistant in Zoology in 1935, and became Curator of Birds and Reptiles in 1938. He kept this position for the decades through to 1976, broken only by a period of war service with the RAAF.
Alan Leishman is an Australian garden administrator and amateur ornithologist. He works for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. He is a bird-bander and has had a long association with the Australian Bird Study Association, serving as foundation editor of its journal Corella 1977–1983, and production editor 1984–1989. In 1998 he was awarded the RAOU's John Hobbs Medal for outstanding contributions to Australian ornithology as an amateur.
John Edgar Courtney is an Australian farmer and amateur ornithologist. He helped put together the first Field Guide to Australian Birdsong, produced by the Bird Observers Club of Australia. He joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1959 and was the RAOU's New England regional representative 1971–1978. In 1999 he was awarded the RAOU's John Hobbs Medal for outstanding contributions to Australian ornithology as an amateur.
The South Australian Ornithological Association (SAOA), also known as Birds SA, is an Australian birding organisation based in Adelaide, South Australia. The SAOA publishes a journal, the South Australian Ornithologist as well as the Birds SA Newsletter "the Birder". It holds regular monthly meetings and conducts field trips for members. Its is also involved in many conservation projects throughout South Australia to help protect local bird species and their habitats.
Australasian Ornithological Conferences are biennial meetings of ornithologists that focus on the Australasian region and Antarctica. Preceded by the short-lived series of two Southern Hemisphere Ornithological Congresses, they were initiated by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), also known as Birds Australia, with the inaugural meeting held at Bathurst, New South Wales in 2001. They have subsequently been jointly sponsored by the BirdLife Australia and the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ).
Alan Harding Lendon (1903–1973) was a South Australian surgeon, aviculturist and amateur ornithologist. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), and served it as President in 1966–1967. He was also strongly associated with the South Australian Ornithological Association (SAOA) until a schism in the membership, regarding the necessity of controlling the live bird export trade, led him in 1960 to form a breakaway group, the Adelaide Ornithologists Club.
John Neil McGilp OBE was a South Australian pastoralist and amateur ornithologist. He was a foundation member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), and served as President of the organisation in 1938–1939. He was also President of the South Australian Ornithological Association (SAOA) in 1935-1936 and 1948–1949. He was also the founding President of the Adelaide Ornithologists Club in 1960. A keen oologist, he presented the South Australian Museum with his comprehensive collection of some 2500 clutches of the eggs of Australian birds.
Warren Billingsley Hitchcock was an Australian field biologist and ornithologist. He was born at Ashfield, New South Wales and educated in Adelaide, South Australia. During the Second World War he served in the CMF and AIF in the Northern Territory of Australia as well as in New Guinea and New Britain.
The Queensland Ornithological Society Inc (QOSI), also known as Birds Queensland, was founded on 15 October 1969 when the Queensland branch of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) became defunct following drastic reform within the RAOU in the late 1960s. The founding President was J.D. Macdonald. It publishes a quarterly journal, Sunbird, as well as a monthly newsletter, Queensland Bird Notes. Its aims are “to promote the scientific study and conservation of birds by all means possible, with particular reference to the birds of Queensland”. For its members it holds monthly meetings in Brisbane as well as regular field excursions and campouts. The logo of Birds Queensland is the yellow-bellied sunbird, a species whose Australian range lies entirely within Queensland.
The NSW Field Ornithologists Club, also known as Birding NSW, was founded on 21 July 1970 when activities associated with the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in New South Wales ceased following drastic reform within the RAOU in the late 1960s which abolished all its branches. Birding NSW publishes a bi-monthly newsletter and holds regular meetings in Sydney and Tuggerah as well as regular field excursions and campouts. The logo of Birding NSW is the azure kingfisher.
Captain Samuel Albert White was a wealthy Australian racehorse owner, soldier, explorer, conservationist and amateur ornithologist. He was born in Fulham, South Australia and eventually died there. He fought in the South African War 1900–1903, reaching the rank of captain, which title he continued to use throughout his life. He made several private ornithological collecting expeditions across remote areas of Australia, to Alice Springs (1913), Musgrave and Everard Ranges (1914), Cooper Creek (1916), Nullarbor Plain (1917-1918), Finke River (1921), and Adelaide to Darwin and return (1922), on behalf of Gregory Mathews.
Joan Burton Paton née Cleland was an Australian teacher, naturalist, environmentalist and ornithologist. One of the first women to become a member of the exclusive Adelaide Ornithologists Club, of which she was elected President 1991–1993, she also served as president of the South Australian Ornithological Association (1979-1982). Her father was Professor Sir John Burton Cleland, a notable microbiologist and pathologist who strongly encouraged her early interest in natural history.
The South Australian Ornithologist is the scientific journal of the South Australian Ornithological Association. The journal was first published in 1914 and is usually issued twice a year to members of the association.
BirdLife Australia is the trading name of a company limited by guarantee formed through the merger of two Australian non-government conservation organisations, Bird Observation and Conservation Australia (BOCA) and Birds Australia. A constitution was drafted in May 2011 for BirdLife Australia, which became operational on 1 January 2012. Their respective magazines, the Bird Observer and Wingspan were succeeded by Australian Birdlife.