The ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds'', known as ''HANZAB'', is the pre-eminent scientific reference on

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the region, which includes

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, and the surrounding ocean and

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...

islands. It attempts to collate all that is known about each of the 957 species recorded. ''HANZAB'' is the largest project ever undertaken by the

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union 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 bird conservation, conservati ...

(RAOU), also known as Birds Australia. It was prepared over 20 years by teams of full and part-time writers, editors and artists, and published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in seven volumes between 1990 and 2006 (volumes 1 and 7 each in two parts).

Contents of each volume

# Ratites to Ducks (in two parts) (1990) 1408 pp. # Raptors to Lapwings (1993) 1048 pp. # Snipe to Pigeons (1996) 1086 pp. # Parrots to Dollarbird (1999) 1248 pp. # Tyrant-flycatchers to Chats (2001) 1272 pp. # Pardalotes to Shrike-thrushes (2002) 1263 pp. # Boatbill to Starlings (in two parts) (2006) 1992 pp. Interesting fact: weight of the whole series 45 lb = 20,5 kg 2)

References

''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds''.

, Melbourne. (7 volume set), including: * Marchant, S. & P.J. Higgins (eds) 1990. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 1: Ratites to Ducks. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. (volume 1 set) * Marchant, S., & P.J. Higgins (eds) 1993. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 2: Raptors to Lapwings. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. * Higgins, P.J. & S.J.J.F. Davies (eds) 1996. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3: Snipe to Pigeons. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. * Higgins, P.J. (ed) 1999. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 4: Parrots to Dollarbird. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. * Higgins, P.J., J.M. Peter & W.K. Steele (eds) 2001. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 5: Tyrant-flycatchers to Chats. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. * Higgins, P.J. & J.M. Peter (eds) 2002. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 6: Pardalotes to Shrike-thrushes. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. * Higgins, P.J., J.M. Peter & S.J. Cowling (eds) 2006. ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 7: Boatbill to Starlings. '' Oxford University Press, Melbourne. (volume 7 set)

External links

* 2) https://www.buteobooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=BBBAO&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=HANZAB1-7 {{DEFAULTSORT:HANZAB Books about Australian birds Ornithological handbooks Ornithology in Australia