Clifford Brodie Frith
Clifford Brodie Frith (born 1949) 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.
Clifford Brodie Frith
- Nationality
- Australia
- Occupation
- photographer · ornithologist
- Honours
- D. L. Serventy Medal
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Clifford Brodie Frith (born 1949) 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.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Clifford Brodie Frith. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q5132878 · wikipedia · Clifford Brodie Frith
In this article
Early life and education
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
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 (1998), and The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhynchidae (2004).
Publisher
Publisher
In July 1984 Clifford and Dawn Frith established their small publishing house (initially and briefly called Tropical Australia Graphics and then Frith&Frith Books). The couple publishes wildlife photography books under the publisher name "Frith & Frith".
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1950
Clifford Brodie Frith was born on 1 January 1950.
Bibliography of books and major chapters
• Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 1983*. Australian Tropical Rainforest Life. Speciality Education Supplies, Townsville, 72 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 1985*. Australian Tropical Birds. Tropical Australia Graphics, Paluma. 72 pp. • Frith, D. & Frith, C. 1985. A Walk in the Rainforest. Tropical Australia Graphics, Paluma. 52 pp. • Frith, C.B. 1986. Garden Birds - Attracting Birds to Australian and New Zealand Gardens. Doubleday, Sydney. 160 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 1987*. Australian Tropical Reptiles and Frogs. Tropical Australia Graphics, Paluma. 72 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 1987. Australian Tropical Reef Life. Tropical Australia Graphics, Paluma. 72 pp. softback. • Frith, D.W. & Frith, C.B. 1991*. Australia's Cape York Peninsula. Frith&Frith, Malanda. 72 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 1992*. Australia's Wet Tropics Rainforest Life. Frith&Frith 72 pp. • Frith, D. & Frith, C. 1993. A Guide to Rainforest Ecology of Karawari Lodge & the Sepik and Ambua Lodge & Tari Gap, Papua New Guinea. Pata Foundation, California and Trans Niugini Tours, Papua New Guinea (joint funding). 58 pp. • Frith, D.W. & Frith, C.B. 1995*. Cape York Peninsula - a Natural History. Reed, Sydney. 256 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Beehler, B.M. 1998. The Birds of Paradise: Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 630 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2006. Editors to and major authors of Chapters Paradisaeidae (33 pp.) and Ptilonorhynchidae (127 pp.) in P. J. Higgins, J.M. Peter, and S.J. Cowling (eds.) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds Volume 7, Part A, Boatbills to Larks. Oxford University press, Melbourne. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2004. The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhynchidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 508 pp. • Frith, C.B., with Erritzoe, J. et al. 2007. The Ornithologist’s Dictionary. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. 290 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2008.* Bowerbirds: Nature, Art & History. 305 pp. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2009. Chapters The Bowerbirds and The Birds of Paradise in The Handbook to the Birds of the World. Volume 12. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. 2008. • Frith, C. B. and Frith, D. W. 2009.* Family Ptilonorhynchidae (Bowerbirds) in del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A. and Christie, D. A. (eds.) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. • Frith, C. B. and Frith, D. W. 2009.* Family Paradisaeidae (Birds of Paradise) in del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A. and Christie, D. A. (eds.) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2010.* Birds of Paradise: Nature, Art & History, 370 pp. • Frith, C.B. 2013.* The Woodhen: A Flightless Island Bird Defying Extinction, 225 pp. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. • Frith, C.B. 2016 (reprinted 2020).* Charles Darwin's Life With Birds: His Complete Ornithology, 499 pp. Oxford University Press, New York. • Frith, C.B. & Frith, D.W. 2023. "A Wild Romance: 50 Years Studying and Photographing Wildlife Around the World", 400 pp. Frith & Frith, Malanda. (* = those works also illustrated by Clifford's photography)
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Clifford Brodie Frith”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q5132878: Clifford Brodie Frith
General reference · Wikidata
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 • Clifford and Dawn Frith (as joint winners) • 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
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Clément MauricePhotographer
- Cliff EvansPhotographer
- Clifford Augustus HallPhotographer
- Clifford BeckPhotographer
- Clifford CoffinPhotographer
- Clifford RossPhotographer
- Clifton C. EdomPhotographer
- Clifton FirthPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Clifford Brodie Frith?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.