Clifford and Dawn Frith have been independent Australian research zoologists, authors, photographers, and publishers for almost 30 years. Clifford's early positions included Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney, the Natural History Museum, London, and the Aldabra Atoll Research Station, Indian Ocean. He was awarded his PhD, by Griffith University, Brisbane, for evolutionary studies of birds of paradise and bowerbirds.
While lecturing in zoology Dawn was awarded her PhD, in marine biology, by London University before meeting Clifford on Aldabra Atoll, where she studied insects for the Royal Society of London. She then spent four years at Phuket Marine Biological Centre, Thailand as Senior Marine Biologist, followed by a lectureship at James Cook University, Queensland, before becoming self-employed.
The Friths married at Bangkok Central Police Station, in October 1975. In December 1977 they moved to tropical north Queensland where they live in tropical rainforest. Their interests include studying and photographing Australasian birds, particularly birds of paradise and bowerbirds. They have worked on other animals, and general ecology, in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and South Pacific. Books by them include several about tropical Australian natural history, notably the large hardback Cape York Peninsula: a Natural History. They have published over 150 scientific contributions, of which some 75 are about the birds of paradise or bowerbirds. They are recipients of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union's Serventy Medal for outstanding original contributions to ornithology. Their studies are self-funded by proceeds from their publishing partnership.
Clifford is senior author of the 1998 book The Birds of Paradise: Paradisaeidae and he and Dawn authored the 2004 The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhynchidae, both of the acclaimed Oxford University Press Bird Families of the World series.
The Friths' new book Birds of Paradise: Nature, Art & History will be launched at the Book Creators Circle EXPO. This 370 page hardback, containing 350 colour and 120 monochrome illustrations, includes photographs of living birds complemented by fine and rare artworks from the 16th to 21st centuries. It not only details the natural history of these most beautiful birds but also their place in New Guinea and Western cultures, the arts, fashions, museums, aviculture, collectable artefacts, and political State and commercial exploitation.
BOOKS IN PRINT:
Frith, D.W. & Frith, C.B. 1991. Australia's Cape York Peninsula.
Frith&Frith, Malanda. 72 pp. softback. ISBN 0 9589942 6 9
Frith, D.W. & Frith, C.B. 1995. Cape York Peninsula - a Natural History. 256 pp., 500 colour photos, hardback. Reprinted 2006 with amendments by Frith&Frith, Malanda. ISBN 0 7301 0469 9
Frith, C.B. & Beehler, B.M. 1998. The Birds of Paradise: Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 630 pp. hardback. ISBN 0 19 854853 2
Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2004. The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhynchidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 508 pp. hardback.ISBN 0 19 854844 3
Frith, C.B., with Erritzoe, J. (first author) et. al. 2007. The Ornithologist's Dictionary. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. 290 pp. softback. ISBN 84 96553 43 4
Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2008. Bowerbirds: Nature, Art & History. 305 pp, 270 colour 50 monochrome illustrations. hardback.
Frith&Frith, Malanda.ISBN 978 1 876473 63 1
Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2010. Birds of Paradise: Nature, Art & History, 370 pp, 350 colour & 120 monochrome illustrations.
Frith&Frith, Malanda. hardback. 2010. ISBN 978 0 646 53298 1 |
 |
