science

The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds

The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds rather than just read about it. In short: The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds is one of the main national bird field guides used by Australian birders. Description The guide was first published in 1986 in Sydney by Rigby Publishers and authored by Peter Slater and other members of his family.

Key takeaways

The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds is one of the main national bird field guides used by Australian birders.

Description The guide was first published in 1986 in Sydney by Rigby Publishers and authored by Peter Slater and other members of his family. It is 215 mm high by 113 mm wide and weighs 440 g. The imprint page asserts copyright of the paintings for Peter Slater, of the text for Pat Slater, and of the maps for Raoul Slater.

History In 1970-74 Slater had produced a two-volume guide to Australian birds which was the first of the new generation of Australian field guides to appear after the Second World War. It was shortly followed by guides authored by Graham Pizzey in 1980 and by Ken Simpson and Nicolas Day in 1984. Slater's second guide continued the evolutionary succession only two years later. In a review in the ornithological journal Emu Ian Taylor said:

”Peter Slater, in conjunction with his wife Pat and their son Raoul, has produced a one volume field guide for the whole of Australia which looks like being serious competition for Graham Pizzey's popular field guide. The great strengths of this book lie in its size and its format. For the first time, here is a field guide which can actually be used in the field. Unlike earlier multi-volume or large format guides, Slater will fit in a trouser or jacket pocket. Gone are the days of carrying guides in day packs or rushing back to the car to confirm an identification. What is remarkable is that it has taken so long for a pocket sized field guide to appear. Our northern hemisphere counterparts have had them for years. The other great strength is the format. At last we have a field guide with the text and distribution maps opposite the illustrations.” A second updated and reorganised 360-page edition was issued by New Holland Publishers in 2009. It has 64 new or revised colour plates, incorporating all the new birds recorded in Australia since 1986.

References

Notes

Sources Taylor, Ian M. (1987). "Book review". Emu. 87 (3): 200. doi:10.1071/MU9870200. Slater, Peter; Slater, Pat & Slater, Raoul (1986). The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds. Sydney: Rigby. ISBN 0-7270-2085-4. "The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds - 2nd Edition". New Holland. 2009-10-01. Archived from the original on 2014-09-01. Retrieved 2011-05-08.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds

In research: The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1986 non-fiction books, Australian bird field guides, Ornithology stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds in simple terms?

The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds is one of the main national bird field guides used by Australian birders. Description The guide was first published in 1986 in Sydney by Rigby Publishers and authored by Peter Slater and other members of his family.

Why does The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds.