Australian Predators of the Sky. By Penny Olsen. National Library of Australia. $39.99.
Reviewer: Ian Fraser
Canberra ornithologist and author Penny Olsen has, in less than a decade, formed a publishing team with the National Library of Australia (NLA) that must be the envy of many other non-fiction publishers and authors. By my count she has published 14 books, including three children's titles, by drawing on the library's vast collections of art works in particular, and pulling themed collections together into science-based stories. Her topics have included bird art, Ferdinand von Mueller's women botanical illustrators, early colonial responses to Australian wildlife, parrots and butterflies.
In this volume, however, she has come back to her first passion, and the one for which she is internationally renowned as a researcher – raptors, or birds of prey. She works through all 34 species of Australian eagles, hawks, falcons and owls, illustrating each richly with up to six paintings by different artists, with at least one full-page size work. Some of the earliest ones, often by unknown colonial artists, are quaint to the modern eye. Others, including those by John Gould and his artists – notably Elizabeth Gould and Henry Richter – are superb. Two other artists who are prolifically represented here but are probably, though unfortunately, unfamiliar to most Australians are New South Welsh teacher Ebenezer Gostelow and Danish bird artist Henrik Gronvold.
Olsen's deep knowledge of the birds and interest in our biological history is evident in the concise text that accompanies each species, including the history of its European discovery and a little about the bird's life. I couldn't help but notice, though, that the information about each owl tends to be less than that about most of the daytime hunters. For me one of the most interesting aspects is the introductory essay on Discovering Australia's Birds of Prey, which is to a large extent about the scientific discovery of Australian birds in general. It is followed by a general piece on the birds of prey themselves, which she is most eminently qualified to write – her now 20-year-old Australian Birds of Prey is still the most comprehensive work on diurnal raptors.
No matter how well-informed you already are on birds of prey then you'll still be able to delight in the beauty, power and historical interest of a swathe of paintings which have not often seen the light of day outside of the NLA's superb collections. This book is, inter alia, a window into their storage rooms.
Ian Fraser is a local naturalist, broadcaster, natural history blogger and author, whose most recent book is Australian Bird Names; a complete guide.
