Sample pages

Bellarine Birdwatching


The Bellarine Peninsula is home to more than 200 species of birds.

This 120 page guide highlights 25 of the best locations to find many
of these birds across the range of habitats the Bellarine has to offer.

Based on the author’s more than 50 years observing and
photographing birds, thousands of hours spent in the field
and 30 years living on the Bellarine Peninsula.

Beautifully illustrated with photographs of each location
and includes photographs of 78 species of birds.

Written, designed and published by Ian Smissen

ISBN: 978-0-646-71713-5

RRP: $AU 30.00 (incl. GST) + $12.50 postage (Australia only)*

* For resellers or international postage, do not use this link.
Please contact me directly.

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Review by Dr David Smith

As published in The SpringDale Messenger, July 2025.

Bellarine Birdwatching

Review by Dr David Smith

 It has been said it can take ten years to become an overnight success. In Ian Smissen’s case, make that 50 years, but those five decades of experience have been distilled into a beautiful book that is bound to succeed. Bellarine Birdwatching is guaranteed to become the must-have handbook which brilliantly fulfils the promise of its subtitle: How, when and where to find birds on the Bellarine Peninsula. Indeed, I predict it will become the Bellarine Birdo’s Bible, to be found in bookstores and newsagents everywhere, as ubiquitous as the books on south coast shipwrecks by Jack Loney.

Smissen has written crisply and concisely, with twenty five featured locations, each with clear and simple notes on the available facilities, how to get there, the birds you can expect to find and the best times to visit. Plus exquisite photographs of 78 species from the region.

The book is introduced with useful notes on the ethics of birdwatching, safety and conservation issues and a general discussion of the Bellarine Peninsula. The outstanding feature of this book is its brevity, with a clear focus on the information you’ll need to find your birds, and nothing else. This is where Smissen’s long field experience and detailed research comes to the fore; there is absolutely no waffle in this book which means the information you need at any chosen location is at your fingertips. It is a perfect field guide and one you’ll want to keep in the car’s glove box.

Designed and published by the author, the book retails for $30.00 and given the thousands of hours of work that have gone into it over decades, and the fine quality of the production, it is definitely a bargain and deserves to sell well for many years to come. The only thing I’d like to see in a future edition is a simple guide to bird photography; what, in Ian’s view, are the five key elements involved in taking successful photographs of birds? Maybe that will be a separate book.

Highly recommended.

Dr David Smith is a zoologist, author and film maker.
You can see his work at www.imaginaction.net.au