Hi All
Probably the most authoratative work currently available on the taxonomy of
Australian birds is that of L. Christidis and W. Boles: "The taxonomy and
species of birds of Australia and its territories". I believe that this was
published in 1994 by Birds Australia (RAOU). We defer to this work at
Charles Sturt University for the post-grad Ornithology courses which are run
there and the work of both authors is about as good as it gets in this day
and age. Field guides are not necessarily authoratative in these matters
(which is not to understate their value as tools for identifying species
generally).
Also try the Australian Museum website bird list (Walter Boles is the
Curator of Vertebrates - and birdman par excellence - at this august
establishment): http://www.austmus.gov.au/birds/stuff/bird_list.htm or this
list of readings:
http://www.austmus.gov.au/birds/publications/index.htm#taxonomy
Hope this helps.
Regards - Ricki
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