GRASSFINCHES IN AUSTRALIA BOOK - TONY PRIDHAM
GRASSFINCHES IN AUSTRALIA BOOK - RELEASE NOW 2012 Due to Publishing Delays
Joseph M. Forshaw & Mark Shephard
Illustrated by Anthony Pridham

This will be the only up-to-date, fully illustrated monograph on all Australian species of grassfinches.

It is not surprising that Australian grassfinches are highly popular with aviculturists, for included among the species are one of the most beautiful of all birds – the Gouldian Finch Erythrura gouldiae, and one of the most familiar cagebirds – the Zebra Finch Taeniopygia guttata. This longstanding popularity in aviculture was recognised by Neville W. Cayley in the Preface to his Australian Finches in Bush and Aviary, which was published in 1932 and was the first book to deal exclusively with Australian species. Thirty years later Klaus Immelmann incorporated findings from his extensive field studies in a revision of Cayley’s book.

After a lapse of almost half a century since publication of Immelmann’s work, the time has come for a new look at Australian grassfinches. In this volume Joseph Forshaw, Mark Shephard and Anthony Pridham have summarised our present knowledge of each species, and have given readers a visual appreciation of the birds in their natural habitats and in aviculture. The resulting combination of superb artwork and scientifically accurate text ensures that this volume will become the standard reference work on Australian grassfinches. In addition to enabling aviculturists to know more about these finches in the wild as a guide to their own husbandry techniques, detailed information on current management practices for all species in captivity is provided. The section on Australian Grassfinches in Aviculture is illustrated with color plates depicting some of the more common variants held in Australian and overseas collections.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST IN PURCHASING YOUR COPY NOW. IT WILL BE AVAILABLE IN HARDBACK COFFEE TABLE SIZE BOOK AND ALSO A VERY LIMITED LEATHERBOUND COLLECTORS LIMITED EDITION. PRICES OF THE BOOKS STILL TO BE DETERMINED BY THE PUBLISHERS.



Joseph Forshaw is one of Australia’s foremost ornithologists. Prior to his retirement, he held a senior position with the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service. He is a Research Associate in the Department of Ornithology at the Australian Museum, Sydney, and with the Australian National Wildlife Collection at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Canberra. He is a Corresponding Fellow of the American Ornithologists Union, and in 1977 was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal for his services to ornithology and conservation. It was in the early 1960s, while working as a biologist with the then CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research, that he turned a lifelong fascination with birds into a serious academic interest, and his efforts were rewarded in 1964 when he was granted a Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fellowship by the American Museum of Natural History to study specimens of Australian parrots in collections at that institution. Results from his research were incorporated into the First Edition of Australian Parrots (Lansdowne Press, 1969). In partnership with the eminent Australian bird artist William Cooper, he has produced a number of widely acclaimed books, most notably the six-volume Kingfishers and Related Birds (Lansdowne Editions, 1983–1994).

Associate Professor Mark Shephard has had a lifelong interest in Australian birds (notably parrots and finches) – both in the wild and in the aviary. Mark has been a long-standing member of both Birds Australia and Birds SA. He is a Life Member (1994) and Co- Patron (2010-present) of the Avicultural Society of South Australia, where he also held positions including Vice President (1991-2) and Co-Editor (1984-9). Mark is the author of the best-selling book Aviculture in Australia–Keeping and Breeding Aviary Birds, for which he received an Avicultural Federation of Australia Award for literary excellence in 1991. Mark has had a particular fascination with Australian deserts and their birdlife, and has traveled extensively across all of the Australian deserts over the past 25 years. He was the inaugural President (1994–1996) and is the current Co-Patron of the Friends of the Great Victoria Desert (2009-present). He has authored books entitled The Simpson Desert – Natural History and Human Endeavour, The Great Victoria Desert – North of the Nullarbor South of The Centre and A Lifetime in the Bush (the authorised biography of well-known Australian explorer and surveyor Len Beadell). Mark’s achievements in the fields of conservation, aviculture and natural history writing, as well as medical research, have been recognised through the receipt of both an Australian of the Year Award in 2004 and an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2006.


Tony Pridham is one of Australia’s leading painters of birds. His two great passions in life—birds and art, have been the driving force behind his chosen career. Tony enjoys travelling widely pursuing bird subjects and new ideas, and challenging himself both artistically and ornithilogically. From the very beginning of this Australian Grassfinch project it was Tony’s aim to see every Australian species and subspecies in the field. From Gouldian Finches in the Kimberlies and the Top End, Red-eared Firetails near Albany and Beautiful Firetails in Tasmania, each subject was closely studied and painted in its true habitat.

Other publications to feature Tony’s work include:
Feather and Brush, Three Centuries of Australian Bird
Art and Glimpses of Paradise, the Quest for the Beautiful
Parakeet, both authored by Penny Olsen.

Tony currently resides in Mansfield,Victoria, with his wife Billie and children Jesse and Tilly.





Australian Grassfinches

It is not surprising that Australian Grassfinches are highly popular with aviculturists, for included among the species are one of the most beautiful of all birds – the Gouldian Finch Erythrura gouldiae, and one of the most familiar cagebirds – the Zebra Finch Taeniopygia guttata. This longstanding popularity in aviculture was recognised by Neville W. Cayley in the Preface to his Australian Finches in Bush and Aviary, which was published in 1932 and was the first book to deal exclusively with Australian species. Describing the purpose of his book as being twofold: ‘(a) to supply a much-needed manual for the use of lovers of these beautiful birds, who keep and breed them; (b) to offer to those who take a more scientific interest in our finches information concerning them in their natural habitats’, Cayley pointed out that ‘For more than one hundred and forty years Australian finches have been kept in captivity, and yet little has been published regarding their habits’. This paucity of information was addressed quite competently some thirty years later by Klaus Immelmann, who incorporated findings from his extensive field studies in a revision of Cayley’s book. Immelmann had been introduced to ornithology at the age of 12 years by a gift of a pair of Zebra Finches, and his studies, together with those of the late Richard Zann, who studied with Immelmann in Germany, heralded an upsurge in interest in Australian Grassfinches among researchers and fieldworkers. This interest has intensified, and is continuing, so bringing about a dramatic advancement in our knowledge of many species. Threatened species, most notably the Gouldian Finch, are the focus of comprehensive, multi-faceted field investigations, while at the same time studies of the common Zebra Finch are turning from the laboratory to the field. We have gained new information from field observations carried out on little-known species, including the Blue-faced Parrot- Finch Erythrura trichoa and the Red-eared Firetail Stagonopleura oculata. Significant advances in taxonomic research, largely as a consequence of the development and refinement of biochemical analyses, often involving DNA-DNA hybridisation, have given us a new insight into relationships among species, with some unexpected alliances being determined. Additionally, dramatic changes have taken place in avicultural practices, and in virtually all countries aviculture has taken on a new professional approach, with the most notable results being increased productivity and success with a wider variety of species. After a lapse of almost half a century since publication of Immelmann’s work, the time has come for a new look at Australian Grassfinches, and that is the objective of this book. In this volume Joseph Forshaw, Mark Shephard and Tony Pridham have summarised our present knowledge of each species, and have given readers a visual appreciation of the birds in their natural habitats and in aviculture. The resulting combination of superb artwork and scientifically accurate text ensures that this volume will become the standard reference work on Australian Grassfinches. In addition to enabling aviculturists to know more about these finches in the wild as a guide to their own husbandry techniques, detailed information on current management practices for all species in captivity is provided. The section on Australian Grassfinches in Aviculture is illustrated with color plates depicting some of the more common mutations held in Australian and overseas collections.

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