Clifford Brodie Frith
Clifford Brodie Frith is an Australian ornithologist and wildlife photographer. He and his wife Dawn Whyatt Frith have studied and published on Australian birds for many years, and publish books as Frith & Frith.
Early life and education
Clifford Brodie Frith was born in 1949.In 2002 Frith obtained his PhD at Griffith University, Queensland, for his 1200-page thesis "Evolutionary studies of bowerbirds and birds of paradise: affinities and divergence".
Ornithologist
Frith commenced his ornithological career at the Natural [History Museum, London], where he worked from 1967 to 1970. Most of 1968 was spent in tropical Australia on the Fifth Harold Hall Australian Expedition to the Kimberley and Arnhem Land areas. He was resident ornithological staff scientist on Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean for the Royal Society of London from 1972 to 1973. He then lived on Phuket Island in southern Thailand until moving the Australia to live.Since 1977, Frith, with his wife Dawn W. Frith, has studied various aspects of tropical rainforest avifauna in Australia, New Guinea, and elsewhere for over three decades. His studies have resulted in many scientific publications on the behaviour, nesting biology, mating systems, and systematics of bowerbirds, birds of paradise, and other rainforest-dwelling bird species. He has produced two major ornithological text books: The Birds of Paradise: Paradisaeidae, and The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhynchidae.
Publisher
In July 1984 Clifford and Dawn Frith established their small publishing house.The couple publishes wildlife photography books under the publisher name "Frith & Frith".
Awards
;Clifford Frith:- 2014: Whitley Award in the field of historical zoology, for his book The Woodhen
- 2021: Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to conservation and the environment", in the 2021 [Queen's Birthday Honours |2021 Queen's Birthday Honours]
- 1996: D. L. Serventy Medal from the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, for original contributions to Australasian ornithology of international significance
- 2006: Cassowary Award, by the Australian Wet Tropics Authority, in the Arts Category "for an outstanding contribution to aesthetic appreciation of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area"
- 2008: Whitley Award in the Field Natural History section, for Bowerbirds: Nature, Art & History
- 2011: Whitley Award in the field of popular zoology, for ''Birds of Paradise: Nature, Art & History''