The Literature of Australian Birds is a book published in 1954 by Paterson Brokensha in Perth, Western Australia.

It is in large octavo format (252 x 184 mm) and contains some 900 pages, two separately paginated parts bound in one volume in brown buckram.

Much the larger part of the book, however, lies in the 788 pages of Part 2, titled “A Bibliography of Australian Ornithology 1618 to 1950, with Biographies of Authors, Collectors and Others”, where Whittell has attempted to be exhaustively comprehensive in compiling mentions of Australian birds, not only from the scientific literature but also from newspapers, magazines and other published sources, and including potted biographies of their authors.

Additions and Emendations to H.M. Whittell’s The Literature of Australian Birds”, compiled by Tess Kloot.

In the preface to this latter work Kloot comments, with regard to Whittell: ”In his monumental work, The Literature of Australian Birds, (Paterson Brokensha Pty Ltd, 1954), the late Major H. M. Whittell paid tribute to those who went before him : In 1925 Gregory M. Mathews issued, as a supplement to his Birds of Australia, a bibliography of books and articles studied in the preparation of his work, plus brief biographical notes on the authors; and in 1935 Anthony Musgrave published his Bibliography of Australian Entomology 1775-1930.