Frequently Asked Questions

The HANZAB web site is accessed at https://hanzab.birdlife.org.au/ . Some of the introductory and information pages, as well as a sample species page, are accessible from the menu without logging in. However, to access the information about species, orders, families and subfamilies, you will need to log in with a BirdLife account.

NOTE: You do not need to be a member of Birdlife Australia to have an account to access HANZAB.

For members of BirdLife Australia, you probably already have a Birdlife Australia account (see instructions below if you have forgotten your password or are unsure if you have a Birdlife account). Otherwise, you will need to setup an account (see below or instructions for creating a Birdlife Australia Birdata account in Birdata ‘How-to’ Guides).

Log in or create a new account

Go to the HANZAB web site.

Click on  ‘Log in’ in the menu.

You can Log in, or Create a new account:

If you are unsure if you have a BirdLife account, or if you have forgotten your password, please click ‘Forgot your password?’ underneath the ‘Log in’ button, on the left. Instructions on resetting your password will be sent to the email address you entered. Remember to also look in your spam folder for the email.

If you didn’t receive an email, BirdLife may not have an account set up for you, even if you have supported us in the past. Setting up an account is simple, go Back to login and click Create a New Account.

If you can’t log in, or create a new account, send an email to support@birdlife.org.au.

Create a new BirdLife Australia account

Click on ‘Create a new account’, located under the ‘Log in’ button, on the right.

Enter your first name, last name, and email and press Sign Up.

A screen will appear asking you to enter a verification code. This will have been sent to the email address you entered on the screen before.
• Check your email. The code will be in an email with the subject line “Verify your new account”
• The six-digit code will be at the bottom of the email. Ensure you have checked your spam and other folders if you cannot see it.
• Enter the six-digit code in the screen where you were asked to enter a verification code, and click ‘Verify‘.

You will then be asked to create a password.
• Instructions on creating a valid password are shown on the screen.

When you have set your password, you should stay logged in and have access to all HANZAB pages.

Yes, there is a sample page which is accessible without registering.

See Treatment and Presentation.

There are a two main ways to find information:

1. Using search box at the top of each page (see instructions below).
2. Using the Contents page (link on the menu at the top of the page).

The search box is located near the top of the screen. As text is entered in this box, a list of pages (species, subfamily, family, order or supporting text) with the search text in the title or scientific name will be shown below the search box. For example, entering ‘babbler’ in the search box will return a list below the search box with the name of each species and two families that have the word in the title (see image below). Clicking on any of these links will take you to the page. Note that searches are not case sensitive and, in this search box, hyphens and apostrophes are optional with, for example, ‘Buller’s’ and ‘Bullers’ returning the same list of entries.

If ‘babbler’ is entered in the search box, the last item in the list is “All items containing babbler…”. Clicking on this takes you to a page showing all pages containing the word babbler anywhere within the text (see image below). This page has two search boxes: the one at the top of the screen (used as described above) and one below the line with a blue search button. This second search box is used to search for all pages containing the text anywhere on the page.  The search for ‘babbler’ returns three screens of pages which include the word ‘babbler’. The second search box can be used to refine your search or enter new searches for all pages containing the search text. If ‘babbler’ was replaced with ‘quoll’ and the search button pressed, only pages containing this text would be shown. If you are looking for search terms which include spaces (eg. “smoky mouse”, ”Satin Bowerbird”) add the quotes otherwise the list returned will include documents which include both words, whether together or not.

Opening the pages in the list does not take you to the search text. To find the text in the page, use the ‘find in page’ functionality in your browser (Ctrl+F for Windows or Command-F for Apple).

A search containing multiple words, not in quotes, will locate entries that contain all the words, not necessarily together or in the order entrered. Eg. a search for ‘black duck’ (without quotes) will locate all entries containing ‘black’ and ‘duck’.

To limit the search to a taxonomic rank (Order, Family, FamilySub, Species), add the word Level to the rank required (no space). See Hints for searching on the search page for example.

Note that finding all pages may require a number of searches. In some cases words may be abbreviated or not, eg MIA for Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, P. halli for Pomatostomus halli. In this case search for both the abbreviation and the full text (in quotes). Searching for ‘MIA or “Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area”’ as one search does not return documents containing either term.
Also, text may not be found if it is a mixture of plain, bold and/or italic text in the entry eg. “massaicus in WLAB 4.1″ and in some cases it may be better to divide the text into two or more components. For example, ‘”White-browed” “P. superciliosus”‘ instead of ‘”White-browed P. superciliosus”‘.

HANZAB is being continually updated, with releases not at regular intervals yet.

The site-wide changes are described in Release Notes.

Species revised or with taxonomic or content changes are listed in Updated species.

Within each page, changes are included in the Content Updates section. This section only appears if there are changes. If there are changes, ‘Content Update’, with the release number of the latest update in brackets, is shown above title

Some species have been revised to bring the text up to date. This revision will be noted in the Content Updates and by the word ‘Revised’, with the release date in brackets, appearing above the title.

More details

An important part of reading HANZAB entries is to understand what changes have been made or not made.

To assist the reader’s understand the status of the text, three pieces of information are provided:

1. the Release Notes – mainly documents changes applied across the website
2. the Taxonomic changes section, in each order, family, subfamily and species entry, documents taxonomic and nomenclature changes
3. the Content updates section on each page where the text has been altered.

The text should be read in the context of this information.

Within an entry, there will be links above the title if there are taxonomic changes or content changes, and a notification (not a link) if the entry has been revised (an entry has undergone a complete review and update). The contents of the links, if they are present, should be checked to understand the state of the information.

Below are examples, with the information and screenshots taken from Release 2.01.

The Release Notes page mostly documents changes applied to the whole site such as accessibility changes, changes to search functionality, the activation of comments, and an overview of taxonomic changes such as the move to AviList 2025. For example, the Release Notes page documents that the change to AviList 2025 was applied in Release 2.0 on 19 January 2026:

Release 2.0 (19 January 2026)

• Changed to align with AviList 2025
  • Changed taxonomic sequence and scientific names of orders, families and species to align with AviList 2025. Subfamilies are not included in AviList yet but have been retained in HANZAB.
  • …

Release 2.0 also included activation of comments and changes to search, other English names, IUCN status, accessibility, and multimedia links, all documented on the Release Notes page.

The Taxonomic changes section in each order, family and species describes any changes for these entries resulting from the initial creation of HANZAB online or the change to AviList 2025. If, for example, a species has been split , the entry will have a link above the title to indicate there has been a taxonomic change, and which change is the latest to cause the entry to be modified (the only taxonomic changes at this stage are the initial one, HANZAB 2023 which updated the HANZAB book taxonomy, and AviList 2025). Grey Fantail is an example of a species which was split in the initial release.

In the case of Grey Fantail, the New Zealand and Lord Howe subspecies were split into a separate species, New Zealand Fantail. At this stage, the text of the Grey Fantail entry has not been changed to reflect this change but an entry for New Zealand Fantail has been established with only masthead information  (masthead information is the information at the top of the entry, separated from the text by a line of five dots). To assist the reader, the Taxonomic changes section describes the change.

In Grey Fantail, the Taxonomic changes as at Release 2.01 are:

• HANZAB 2023
  • Family change – Dicruridae in HANZAB book.
  • Grey Fantail Rhipidura fuliginosa in HANZAB book (see Original Text below) split:
    • Grey Fantail Rhipidura albiscapa (subspecies albicauda, albiscapa, alisteri, keasti, pelzelni, preissi, bulgeri and brenchleyi)
    • New Zealand Fantail Rhipidura fuliginosa (subspecies fuliginosa, placabilis, penita and cervina).

Text does not reflect this change.

Re the family change mentioned for Grey Fantail, the current family for a species is shown as links above the title (see screen image above). For Grey Fantail this is:

PASSERIFORMES › Rhipiduridae

In New Zealand Fantail, the Taxonomic changes are:

• HANZAB 2023
  • Grey Fantail Rhipidura fuliginosa in HANZAB book (see Original Text below) split:
    • Grey Fantail Rhipidura albiscapa (subspecies albicauda, albiscapa, alisteri, keasti, pelzelni and preissi)
    • New Zealand Fantail Rhipidura fuliginosa (subspecies fuliginosa, placabilis, penita and cervina).

Text to be added.

By reading the Taxonomic changes , the reader should, in most cases, be able to determine what information in the unchanged Grey Fantail entry applies to the Grey Fantail (after the split) and what applies to New Zealand Fantail. 

[Note, the New Zealand Fantail text extracted from the Grey Fantail entry is to be included in the next release – release 2.1.]

Where a species has been split and the text has not been added, as in New Zealand Fantail in Release 2.01, the links should guide the reader to the text as it was before the split (Grey Fantail). In this case, the HANZAB book entry for Grey Fantail helpfully recognised two main groups, which align with the split, and organised much of the information by them:

(1) albiscapa group, comprising subspecies (all pied morph) in Aust. and on Norfolk I.; and

(2) fuliginosa group, comprising subspecies (pied and black morphs) in NZ and on Chatham Is. [Lord Howe subspecies cervina is also part of this group but is extinct].

Content updates. In the Grey Fantail entry the text above the title, as shown above, also indicates that there has been an update to the content. In this case, the update does not have a date as it only applies to the addition of the Conservation Status section. However, in other entries the Content Update above the title may be followed by a date and release number. For example, in Rufous Fantail.

Here the Content Update is followed by “(19 January 2026 R 2.0 )”, to indicate the latest change to the content was made in Release 2.0 (R 2.0), which was done on 19 January 2026. The text in the Content Updates section is: 

Release 2.0

• IUCN status changed from Least Concern to Not Evaluated due to taxonomic change in AviList 2025

The taxonomic change referred to in the Content Updates section is documented in the Taxonomic Changes section:

• AviList 2025
  • Rufous Fantail complex (Rhipidura rufifrons and Rhipidura dryas) divided into eight species, with three recorded in HANZAB region:
    • Arafura Fantail Rhipidura dryas with two subspecies, dryas and streptophora (HANZAB 2023 subspecies semicollaris now Supertramp Fantail)
    • Australian Rufous Fantail Rhipidura rufifrons with two subspecies, intermedia and rufifrons (no extralimital subspecies)
    • Supertramp Fantail Rhipidura semicollaris with nine subspecies

Note that Rufous Fantail is called Australian Rufous Fantail in AviList 2025. The difference in English and/or scientific name is shown below the title (see screen image above).

Where the entry has been revised, see the Content updates for a description of the sections changed. For example, Albert’s Lyrebird has been revised.

In the Content updates:

Release 1.2

• description of the last revision (see below) updated with the sections that have changed
• accessibility changes to headings and tables

Release 1.1

• Text revised by F. Cehak & F. Backhouse. Sections changed (other than minor text changes):
  • Field Identification (introduction; Similar species)
  • Distribution and Population (Change in range, populations)
  • Threats and Human Interactions
  • Movements (Banding)
  • Social Organisation (introduction; Bonds; Size of territories)
  • Social Behaviour (Display with tail; Copulation)
  • Voice
  • Breeding (Season; Site; Nest Materials,Measurements)
  • Moults (Adult post-breeding )
  • Weights
  • References
  • abbreviations have been removed eg ne change to north east

To determine the date of the releases, see the Releases Notes page. In the case above, the release dates in the Release Notes page are:

• Release 1.2 (10 June 2025)
• Release 1.1 (11 March 2025)

Note that the information above was extracted from Release 2.0.1 and will most likely change with future HANZAB releases.

The current taxonomy is found on the HANZAB Contents page. It can also be accessed by using the HANZAB search by entering ‘Taxonomy’ and selecting ‘HANZAB Taxonomy’.

While the pages about birds can be accessed directly via the search box (see Find information above), there are a couple of ways that the information can accessed in taxonomic order:

• Using the links in the taxonomy.
• Using the links under the menu at the top of the species, subfamilies, families and orders pages.
• Using the links in the box on the subfamilies, families and orders pages.

At the top of the species page there are links to the next species, previous species, order, family and, if included, subfamily. For example, at the top of the Southern Cassowary page there are links the links below.

CASUARIIFORMES › Casuariidae on the left, and on the right ◄ Emu |Little Spotted Kiwi ► ►

The Little Spotted Kiwi link has two right arrows to indicate that it is the next species and that it is in a different family to the Southern Cassowary.

The pages for subfamilies, families and orders include similar links. For example, the Casuariidae family has the links for order CASUARIIFORMES, the previous family Struthionidae and the next family Apterygidae.

CASUARIIFORMES on the left, and on the right ◄ Struthionidae | Apterygidae ►►

On the Casuariidae page there are links to the species within the family in the box at the top of the page.

Taxonomic order is the default for the list but this can be changed to alphabetical using the selector at the at the bottom of the box.

To find the appendices from the HANZAB books, use the search: type ‘Appendix’ in the search box. Alternate methods are:

• Use the links under Bird related information on the HANZAB contents page.
• Search for ‘HANZAB book structure‘ and go that page to see the full list by volume.