BirdGuide.au is an Australian bird identification and discovery project. Its purpose is simple: help people work out what bird they saw, then make it easy to learn about that species’ appearance, habitat, diet, behaviour, calls and similar birds.
Who BirdGuide is for
You do not need to be an expert birder to use BirdGuide. The site is designed for backyard birdwatchers, families, walkers, photographers, nature lovers and anyone who has looked at a bird and wondered, “What is that?”
Rather than assuming visitors already know bird families and technical terms, BirdGuide starts with practical field clues such as colour, size, location, body shape and behaviour.
How the guide is organised
The Australian bird directory contains individual species profiles. Each profile focuses on useful identification features and the bird’s Australian distribution, habitat, diet and recognisable behaviour.
The identification guides work in the opposite direction. They begin with what a person noticed — for example a black-and-white bird, a long beak or bright green plumage — and link to likely species. The backyard bird guides and behaviour guides provide additional ways to explore.
Photography and image licensing
Bird identification depends on good photographs. BirdGuide uses real bird photography and records the creator, licence and original source for licensed images. Images should not be copied from search results without checking the original file and reuse terms.
Where an image licence requires attribution, BirdGuide aims to retain the photographer or creator credit and source information alongside the image or on the associated species profile.
Accuracy and corrections
Bird distribution, taxonomy and local occurrence can change, and familiar species can vary by age, sex, season and region. BirdGuide articles are written to be useful in the field while avoiding false certainty when several species may fit the same description.
External references such as BirdLife Australia and the Australian Museum are used where appropriate. If you notice a factual error, outdated information, broken link or attribution issue, please use the contact page so it can be reviewed.
A growing Australian bird library
BirdGuide is being expanded species by species. The current library is the foundation for broader visual guides covering colour, shape, behaviour, food and location. As the library grows, identification pages will link directly to more species so visitors can move from a quick visual clue to a detailed profile.