Birds Australia Atlas

"By spending weekends and holidays looking for elusive chestnut-breasted whitefaces, rare waders or spunky splendid fairy-wrens, volunteers are contributing to one of the most effective "State of the Environment" surveys possible.

The Birds Australia Atlas is compiled from the observations of volunteer birdwatchers all over the country. While it is an excellent source of information regarding bird distribution, its accuracy regarding abundance is questionable. The reason being, some bird-watching areas are just more popular than others due to factors including accessibility, climate and the likelihood of spotting a rare bird. Given the scarcity of the Chestnut-Breasted Whiteface, for example, the amount of times it is recorded on Bird Atlas forms is remarkable!

However, despite these biases, the Birds Atlas is an extremely worthy project, playing a valuable conservation role by recording observations of expanding populations and, more importantly, declines in other species.