It contained 460 pages of text with 32 black-and-white and 56 colour plates illustrating nearly all species of birds recorded in Australia at the time of publication.

In the preface to the seventh edition, Sue, Caroline, Sarah and Tom Pizzey explain some of the background to the work: "The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia was first published in 1980, after more than fifteen years in the making.

After all, the entire family was there at its inception and development: travelling to various corners of the continent as Graham took countless photographs and recorded observations in the field.

An article in the Herald in July 1967 shows the three Pizzey children sprawled on the living-room floor, poring over a map as we traced the journey we were about to make up through the Centre and down the west coast.

And we've been involved in various ways ever since: looking at proofs, being asked for an opinion on an illustration or cover, or listening to an attempt to capture the call of a bird on paper.