George Mack (1899-1963) was mainly a museum ornithologist and collector, but also worked as an ichthyologist. He migrated from Britain to Western Australia in 1919. He worked at the National Museum of Victoria from 1923 to 1945. During this time, he published a revision of the Australian species of the fairy-wren genus Malurus [1] and described several species of fish, for example Galaxiella pusilla . He then worked at the Queensland Museum from 1945, rising to become director in 1963, the year of his death. It was his controversial action in shooting a scarlet robin during the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) campout in Marlo, Victoria in 1935 that catalysed change in the RAOU's attitude to collecting.
The Australasian wrens are a family, Maluridae, of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. While commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens. The family comprises 29 species in six genera.
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.
The variegated fairywren is a fairywren that lives in eastern Australia. In a species that exhibits sexual dimorphism, the brightly coloured breeding male has chestnut shoulders and azure crown and ear coverts, while non-breeding males, females and juveniles have predominantly grey-brown plumage, although females of two subspecies have mainly blue-grey plumage.
Archibald James Campbell was an Australian civil servant in the Victorian government Customs Service. However, his international reputation rests on his expertise as an amateur ornithologist and naturalist.
Robert Hall was a founding member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1901, and served as its President 1912–1913.
John Albert Leach was an ornithologist, teacher and headmaster in the state of Victoria, Australia.
Dominic Louis Serventy was a Perth-based Australian ornithologist. He was president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) 1947–1949. He assisted with the initial organisation of the British Museum's series of Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expeditions during the 1960s, also participating in the third (1965) expedition.
Stephen Marchant, AM was born in Staffordshire, studied geology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and worked in the oil exploration business in many countries, using the opportunities arising from his postings to study birdlife around the world. He wrote classic papers on the birds of the Red Sea, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Indonesia, Borneo, Ecuador and Iraq. In 1963 he migrated to Australia where he joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra.
Alexander Hugh Chisholm OBE FRZS also known as Alec Chisholm, was a noted Australian naturalist, journalist, newspaper editor, author and ornithologist. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), President of the RAOU 1939–1940, and editor of its journal the Emu from 1926 to 1928. In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1941 and the previous year he had been the first recipient of the Australian Natural History Medallion for his work in ornithology and popularising natural history. Chisholm was a prolific and popular writer of articles and books, mainly on birds and nature but also on history, literature and biography.
Clive Dudley Thomas Minton, AM was a British and Australian metallurgist, administrator, management consultant and amateur ornithologist. His interest in birds began in childhood.
Allan Reginald McEvey (1919–1996) was a schoolteacher before becoming Curator of Ornithology at the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. In 1962–63 he participated in the first of the Harold Hall Australian ornithological collecting expeditions. He was President of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1968–1969, a critical period in its history. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1980.
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.
Norman Joseph Favaloro was an Australian lawyer and amateur ornithologist and zoologist. Norman was born in Bendigo. He practiced law in Mildura, Victoria where he lived most of his life. In 1940 he was appointed an Honorary Associate in the Ornithology Department of the National Museum of Victoria, an association he retained the rest of his life. He made three trips to the subantarctic, visiting Macquarie Island, Heard Island and Kerguelen Island. At Macquarie Island he collected king penguins and their eggs for the National Museum of Victoria. His own notable egg collection was also bequeathed to the Museum.
Graham Martin Pizzey AM was a noted Australian author, photographer and ornithologist.
Michael Stanley Reid Sharland (1899–1987) was an Australian journalist, photographer, author and amateur ornithologist. He was born, and spent most of his life, in Tasmania, though he also lived and worked in Sydney, Melbourne and London.
The purple-crowned fairywren is a species of bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is the largest of the eleven species in the genus Malurus and is endemic to northern Australia. The species name is derived from the Latin word cǒrōna meaning "crown", owing to the distinctive purple circle of crown feathers sported by breeding males. Genetic evidence shows that the purple-crowned fairywren is most closely related to the superb fairywren and splendid fairywren. Purple-crowned fairywrens can be distinguished from other fairywrens in northern Australia by the presence of cheek patches and the deep blue colour of their perky tails.
The white-winged fairywren is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It lives in the drier parts of Central Australia; from central Queensland and South Australia across to Western Australia. Like other fairywrens, this species displays marked sexual dimorphism and one or more males of a social group grow brightly coloured plumage during the breeding season. The female is sandy-brown with light-blue tail feathers; it is smaller than the male, which, in breeding plumage, has a bright-blue body, black bill, and white wings. Younger sexually mature males are almost indistinguishable from females and are often the breeding males. In spring and summer, a troop of white-winged fairywrens has a brightly coloured older male accompanied by small, inconspicuous brown birds, many of which are also male. Three subspecies are recognised. Apart from the mainland subspecies, one is found on Dirk Hartog Island, and another on Barrow Island off the coast of Western Australia. Males from these islands have black rather than blue breeding plumage.
The red-backed fairywren is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia and can be found near rivers and coastal areas along the northern and eastern coastlines from the Kimberley in the northwest to the Hunter Region in New South Wales. The male adopts a striking breeding plumage, with a black head, upperparts and tail, and a brightly coloured red back and brown wings. The female has brownish upperparts and paler underparts. The male in eclipse plumage and the juvenile resemble the female. Some males remain in non-breeding plumage while breeding. Two subspecies are recognised; the nominate M. m.melanocephalus of eastern Australia has a longer tail and orange back, and the short-tailed M. m. cruentatus from northern Australia has a redder back.
The purple-backed fairywren is a fairywren that is native to Australia. Described by Alfred John North in 1901, it has four recognised subspecies. In a species that exhibits sexual dimorphism, the brightly coloured breeding male has chestnut shoulders and azure crown and ear coverts, while non-breeding males, females and juveniles have predominantly grey-brown plumage, although females of two subspecies have mainly blue-grey plumage. Distributed over much of the Australian continent, the purple-backed fairywren is found in scrubland with plenty of vegetation providing dense cover.