Serventy was born at Brown Hill, Western Australia to parents of Croatian origin.
Serventy co-authored (with H. M. Whittell) of Birds of Western Australia, (published in five editions between 1948 and 1976), and (with John Warham and his brother Vincent Serventy, a popular naturalist) of The Handbook of Australian Sea-birds (1971).
Serventy Medal which is awarded annually for outstanding published work on birds in the Australasian region.
[1] Dominic Serventy is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Australian lizard, Ctenotus serventyi.
[2] Dominic and Vincent Serventy are commemorated in the species' epithet of the extinct cormorant Microcarbo serventyorum, described by Gerard Frederick van Tets in 1994.