Current read? The 2003 Eureka Science prizewinner, The New Atlas of Australian Birds edited by G. Barrett and others (Birds Australia).
Why? 鈥淏irds are ideal indicators of environmental change,鈥� Low says. This atlas of bird distribution maps, compiled from vast numbers of sightings, shows us which birds are winning and losing since the last atlas was published in 1984. 鈥淭he losers include, surprisingly, sparrows and starlings, the winners silvereyes, galahs and willie wagtails.鈥�
Books he admires? Jared Diamond and Ernst Mayr鈥檚 The Birds of Northern Melanesia (Oxford, 2001). 鈥淚 was much affected by this book, which helped me think less about 鈥榮pecies鈥� as biology鈥檚 fundamental evolutionary units, and more about lineages and superspecies,鈥� he says. And Tom Griffiths鈥檚 history of natural history in Australia, Hunters and Collectors (Cambridge, 1996), is 鈥渇ull of surprises and rare facts 鈥� very different from anything else I have read鈥�.
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