• Publications

• Gang-gang Newsletter
• Canberra Bird Notes
  • Using the Canberra Bird Notes search facility
• Birds of Canberra Gardens Book
  • A Canberra Bird Garden
    • Position
    • Structure
    • Using Local Plants
    • Food
    • Putting Out Food
    • Water
    • Nesting and Nest Boxes
    • Some Recommended Plants
  • About the Birds of Canberra Gardens Book
    • Foreword
    • Acknowledgements
    • Dedication
    • Introduction
  • Some Conservation Issues
  • The COG Gardenbird Survey
    • The Garden Bird Survey Year
    • Weather
• Bird calls and songs CD
• Canberra Bird Routes
• Pocket Guide to the Birds of Canberra
  • About the Pocket Guide
  • Jerrabomberra Wetlands (inc. Kelly Swamp and Sewage Ponds)
  • Campbell Park
  • Australian National Botanic Gardens
  • Woodlands, Suburbs, City and Lakes
• Backyard Birds of Canberra poster
• Email Discussion List (Chatline)
• Maps, Forms and Lists
  • Campbell Park Map
  • Fyshwick Sewage Ponds
  • Kama Bird List
  • Kellys Swamp
  • View from Cygnus Hide, Kellys Swamp
  • Using COG’s data
  • Annotated Checklist of the Birds of the ACT – November 2017
  • ACT Birders’ Totals
• Other Resources
  • COG monthly meeting location

Search all issues of Canberra Bird Notes

READ THIS: How to use this search box

Most recent issue

2023 #2 December (7 MB posted 08 Dec 2023)

(All other issues can be found in the archive below).

NOTE: The Annual Bird Report (normally the first CBN each year) has not been published in recent years (2021, 2022, 2023) pending the replacement of COG’s bird database.

About CBN

COG members have been publishing details of their bird-related observations and investigations in the publication Canberra Bird Notes (CBN) for almost 50 years. CBN was established in 1968:

“…as a news letter for members of the Canberra Branch of the R.A.O.U. [now COG] and other interested persons. It is intended purely as an informal medium of communication and does not constitute a recognised journal.” (Quoted from the first issue).

Despite the disclaimer, much of the content is good citizen science mixed with a diverse range of personal insights into many aspects of bird biology, ecology and behaviour.

How to use this resource

CBN is produced three or four times a year, grouped into annual volumes. The first issue every year is devoted to the Annual Bird Report, an extensive summary of the status of all bird species found in COG’s area of interest over the previous (July-June) year.

Issues are published in printed form and also electronically. Printed issues are mailed out to members while the electronic version is available here, on this page. Members are notified when a new issue is available.

All CBN volumes are available as full-text, searchable PDFs. It should be noted that earlier CBN volumes were scanned from printed originals using OCR (optical character recognition) software, which is by no means perfect. Scanning and formatting errors occur in the text and layout as a result. IT IS IMPORTANT therefore that if you are using data from Canberra Bird Notes, please refer to the original PRINTED edition as there is no guarantee that data has scanned correctly.

The scanning process has taken COG member Alastair Smith 10 months, and comprises 150 volumes and some 5,100 pages – a mammoth task indeed! Thank you very much Alastair for all of your hard work – it is much appreciated.

Early ACT Branch RAOU Annual Bird Reports

Before CBN started, COG (as ACT Branch of the RAOU) produced three Annual Bird Reports covering the 1965, 1966, 1967 June-June years.  These are accessible at the very bottom of the archive.

If you have any difficulties using on-line CBN, please contact the COG Webmaster.