Peter Slater (ornithologist)

”Naturalist, artist and writer, Peter Slater could be said to be the most modern equivalent of Neville Cayley Jr. Both have published enormously successful field guides to Australian birds, reprinted many times, and both have written on and illustrated butterflies.”

”To knowledgeable critics, Slater is now a more accomplished artist than his predecessor. However, this was not yet evident in his early artwork, which includes the plates in Australian Flycatchers and their Allies, among the first of a new wave of bird identification books. More than any of his contemporaries, he has developed his art in the public eye, chronicled in the many publications containing his work. His rare but successful exhibitions serve to mark stages in his progress and delineate the beginning of new phases in his work. Since 1964, he has illustrated with photographs or paintings, an impressive 30 or more books on birds, and reckons to have painted every Australian bird no less than four times.”

Publications

• 1959 – Wildflowers of Western Australia.. West Australian Newspapers Ltd: Perth.
• 1964 – Western Australian Birds. BP Refinery: Kwinana.
• 1966 – Wildlife of Western Australia.. West Australian Newspapers Ltd: Perth.
• 1968 – Birds of Australia.. Angus & Robertson: Sydney.
• 1968 – The Hidden Face of Australia.. Thomas Nelson: Melbourne.
• 1970 – An Eagle for Pidgin.. Jacaranda Press.
• 1970–1974 – A Field Guide to Australian Birds.. Rigby: Adelaide.
• 1973 – .. Reed: Sydney.
• 1974 – Australian Bush Birds. Rigby: Adelaide.
• 1974 – Australian Flycatchers and their Allies.. Bird Observers Club: Melbourne.
• 1978 – Rare and Vanishing Australian Birds. Rigby: Adelaide.
• 1979 – Masterpieces of Australian Bird Photography. Rigby: Adelaide.
• 1979 – The Observer’s Book of Birds of Australia.. Methuen: Sydney.
• 1986 – The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds.. Rigby: Sydney.
• 1987 – Australian Waterbirds.. Reed: Sydney.
• 1987 – The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian Birds by Common Name.. Reed: Sydney.
• 1988 – The Slaters' Australian Birdwatcher's Notebook. New Holland: Melbourne.
• 1995 – Photographing Australia's Birds.. Steve Parish Publishing.
• 1996–2006 – Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds.. Oxford University Press: Melbourne.
• 1997 – Australian Birds 1998 Diary. Steve Parish Publishing.
• 1997 – Australian Birds, A Collection of Paintings and Drawings. Steve Parish Publishing.
• 1997 – Amazing Facts About Australian Marine Life.. Steve Parish Publishing.
• 2000 – Cairns and the Tropical North.. Steve Parish Publishing.
• 2004 – Birds and bird lore of Bougainville and the North Solomons.. Dove Publications: Alderley.
• n.d. – Birds of Kings Park, Western Australia. Paterson Brokensha: Perth.