Peter Slater is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n ornithologist

Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

, wildlife artist

Wildlife art

Wildlife art is one of humanity's earliest art forms, dating back to prehistoric cave paintings such as those found at the grotto of Lascaux in France....

 and photographer.

Slater grew up in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 and moved to North Queensland

North Queensland

North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the state of Queensland in Australia. Queensland is a massive state, larger than most countries, and the tropical northern part of it has been historically remote and undeveloped, resulting in a distinctive regional character and...

 in 1966. He began photographing birds from an early age, has won numerous awards in international exhibitions, and was made an Artiste of the Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique in 1964. He has produced several natural history

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 books and field guide

Field guide

A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife or other objects of natural occurrence . It is generally designed to be brought into the 'field' or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects...

s, often in collaboration with his wife Pat or his son Raoul.

In her 2001 book Feather and Brush, a historical survey of Australian bird painting, Penny Olsen says:

”Naturalist, artist and writer, Peter Slater could be said to be the most modern equivalent of Neville Cayley Jr

Neville William Cayley

Neville William Cayley was a celebrated Australian author, artist and ornithologist. He produced Australia's first comprehensive bird field guide What Bird is That?...

. Both have published enormously successful field guides to Australian birds, reprinted many times, and both have written on and illustrated butterflies.”Olsen (2001), p.122.

”To knowledgeable critics, Slater is now a more accomplished artist than his predecessor. However, this was not yet evident in his early artwork, which includes the plates in Australian Flycatchers and their Allies, among the first of a new wave of bird identification books. More than any of his contemporaries, he has developed his art in the public eye, chronicled in the many publications containing his work. His rare but successful exhibitions serve to mark stages in his progress and delineate the beginning of new phases in his work. Since 1964, he has illustrated with photographs or paintings, an impressive 30 or more books on birds, and reckons to have painted every Australian bird no less than four times.”

Publications

Books authored or coauthored by Slater, or those featuring his illustrations, include:

• 1959 – Wildflowers of Western Australia. (With Eric Lindgren). West Australian Newspapers Ltd: Perth.
• 1964 – Western Australian Birds. BP Refinery: Kwinana.
• 1966 – Wildlife of Western Australia. (With Eric Lindgren). West Australian Newspapers Ltd: Perth. ISBN 0-949864-01-3
• 1968 – Birds of Australia. (With Stanley Breeden). Angus & Robertson: Sydney.
• 1968 – The Hidden Face of Australia. (With Richard Woldendorp). Thomas Nelson: Melbourne.
• 1970 – An Eagle for Pidgin. (Author: Pat Slater). Jacaranda Press. ISBN 0-7016-1684-9
• 1970–1974 – A Field Guide to Australian Birds
  A Field Guide to Australian Birds (Slater)
  A Field Guide to Australian Birds is a two-volume bird field guide published by Rigby of Adelaide, South Australia, in its Rigby Field Guide series. The first volume was issued in 1970, with the second volume appearing in 1974...
  
  . (2 vols). Rigby: Adelaide. ISBN 0-85179-102-6
• 1973 – Birds of Australia: A Summary of Information
  Birds of Australia: A Summary of Information
  Birds of Australia: A Summary of Information is a compact handbook on Australian birds published in 1973. It was authored by the originally British ornithologist James David Macdonald who moved permanently to Australia in 1968 following his retirement from a long career with the British Natural...
  
  . (Author: J.D. Macdonald
  James David Macdonald (ornithologist)
  James David Macdonald was a Scottish-Australian ornithologist and ornithological writer. A traditional museum ornithologist, he did much to build up the collections of African and Australian birds held by the British Museum, as well as popularising ornithology through his writings.-Education and...
  
  ). Reed: Sydney. ISBN 0-589-07117-3
• 1974 – Australian Bush Birds. Rigby: Adelaide. ISBN 0-85179-742-3
• 1974 – Australian Flycatchers and their Allies. (Author: Brigadier Hugh R. Officer). Bird Observers Club: Melbourne. ISBN 0-909711-04-6
• 1978 – Rare and Vanishing Australian Birds. Rigby: Adelaide. ISBN 0-7270-0884-6
• 1979 – Masterpieces of Australian Bird Photography. Rigby: Adelaide. ISBN 0-7270-1164-2
• 1979 – The Observer’s Book of Birds of Australia. (With Pat Slater). Methuen: Sydney. ISBN 0-7232-1651-7
• 1986 – The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds
  The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds
  The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds is one of the main national bird field guides used by Australian birders.-Description:The guide was first published in 1986 in Sydney by Rigby Publishers and authored by Peter Slater and other members of his family. It is 215 mm high by 113 mm...
  
  . (With Pat and Raoul Slater). Rigby: Sydney. ISBN 0-7270-2085-4
• 1987 – Australian Waterbirds. (With Tom and Pam Gardner, and Raoul Slater). Reed: Sydney. ISBN 0-7301-0190-8
• 1987 – The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian Birds by Common Name. (Author: J.D. Macdonald). Reed: Sydney. ISBN 0-7301-0184-3
• 1988 – The Slaters' Australian Birdwatcher's Notebook. New Holland: Melbourne. ISBN 0-947116-61-3
• 1995 – Photographing Australia's Birds. (With Raoul Slater). Steve Parish Publishing. ISBN 1-875932-15-1
• 1996–2006 – Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
  Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds
  The Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, known as HANZAB, is the pre-eminent scientific reference on Birds in the region, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the surrounding ocean and islands...
  
  . (Vols.3–7). Oxford University Press: Melbourne. ISBN 0-195-53244-9
• 1997 – Australian Birds 1998 Diary. Steve Parish Publishing.
• 1997 – Australian Birds, A Collection of Paintings and Drawings. Steve Parish Publishing. ISBN 1876282010
• 1997 – Amazing Facts About Australian Marine Life. (With Pat Slater). Steve Parish Publishing.
• 2000 – Cairns and the Tropical North. (With Pat Slater). Steve Parish Publishing. ISBN 1-74021-043-3
• 2004 – Birds and bird lore of Bougainville and the North Solomons. (Author: Don Hadden). Dove Publications: Alderley. ISBN 0959025758
• n.d. – Birds of Kings Park, Western Australia. Paterson Brokensha: Perth.

Sources