Emu - Austral Ornithology

Emu has been the flagship for Birds Australia for over a century.  It is the premier journal for ornithological research in the Southern Hemisphere, publishing high-quality papers that report the results of scientific study in all areas of bird research and conservation. Topics of papers in Emu are wide-reaching, varying from the global scale (such as the effects of climate change on our birds) down to the microscopic (DNA analysis of various species), as well as detailed studies of the ecology and morphology of a wide variety of birds.   

The focus of Emu has not always been so scientifically based. Older volumes of Emu, now available electronically back to 1901, contained a wide variety of annotated lists, notes on birds and their behaviour, and accounts of expeditions of ornithological discovery. Importantly, they also laid the foundations of the research and conservation activities which are synonymous with Birds Australia.  Did you know that the earliest bird-banding activities in Australia were overseen by Birds Australia?  It is all recorded in Emu.  Did you know that Birds Australia was the first bird organisation to get involved in international conservation campaigns when it successfully fought to have the trade in egret plumes banned?  It's all there in Emu.  

The papers published in Emu are crammed with observations and scientific results that are, cumulatively, vital to our understanding of so many of the birds of Australia and elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere.  For example, much of the information included in HANZAB was gleaned from the pages of Emu.

In 1997, the late Dr Norman Wettenhall, a prominent member of Birds Australia, commissioned Dr Libby Robin to write a book that would celebrate not just Birds Australia, but would review the twentieth century in Australian ornithology. After several years of research and over 200 interviews, the result is The Flight of the Emu, a major scientific and social history.This history salutes the Emu's longevity and ability to revitalise itself over the changing course of the century.

Emu is produced quarterly, and is available by subscription with a Birds Australia membership. Members selecting an electronic subscription option will receive online access to the complete Emu archive, back to 1901. Click here to find out more about membership.

For more information about Emu - Austral Ornithology visit the CSIRO PUBLISHING website.

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