Songs For Saving Birds
Endangered Australian birds (credit: Songs of Disappearance)
A book and companion record that focuses on endangered Australian birds has hit the charts with recordings of their songs. Songs of Disappearance passed sales of ABBA, Mariah Carey, and Michael Buble CD's. The book and CD is a collaboration between nature sound recordist David Stewart, the Bowerbird Collective, BirdLife Australia, and Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory.
Endangered Palm cockatoo (credit: Dave Newman/Birdlife Australia)
The publishing project was conceived and released to coincide with the Action Plan released by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Every decade, the CSIRO reviews the status of Australian birds. The plan is the Agency's most comprehensive to date and resulted from hundreds of interviews with the most respected Australian birders. Besides endangered species the report also included more than 60 species no longer considered threatened. Their improved status is primarily from sustained bird conservation and restoration efforts by bird watching groups and individuals implementing 10-year recovery plans. Replanting native Australian trees and shrubs is a straight-forward approach to restore bird habitat.
The success of the new bird book and accompanying field recordings has surprised the authors. A TV news segment and a sampling of birdsongs explains the enthusiasm and support Australians are giving for their wild avian companions.
All funds realized from book sales go to Birdlife Australia for their 'grassroots' projects to protect and restore populations of threatened birds in that vast country. Other people should learn from the Aussies and follow their intelligent, pro-active, conservation efforts with their own native birds. WHB