Books for kids: Stephanie Owen Reeder explores picture books that introduce young readers to Australia's amazing birdlife

My own narrative nonfiction picture book Swifty: The Super-fast Parrot (CSIRO Publishing, $24.99) follows a year in the life of a critically-endangered swift parrot. Tiny Swifty follows the blossom trail from Southern Tasmania, across Bass Strait, along the east coast of mainland Australia, and back to Tasmania to breed. Along the way, she faces threats from sugar gliders, wild winds, feral animals, habitat destruction and manmade obstacles.

Creating this picture book with award-winning illustrator Astred Hicks involved a great deal of research, with information about these beautiful birds not only embedded in the text and illustrations, but also included in a comprehensive information section that includes how to identify swift parrots when they visit your backyard.

This attention to detail is evident in other CSIRO picture book publications about birds. Like Swifty, Swoop (CSIRO Publishing, $24.99) has a strong Canberra connection. Local creatives Nicole Godwin and Susannah Crispe have produced an entertaining picture book that aims to raise awareness of the reasons why magpies swoop.

While only around 10 per cent of male magpies actually attack, their seasonal antics have becomes a part of Australian folklore. Nicole Godwin's spare, carefully crafted text provides opportunities for young readers to join in Magpie's "swooping", while Susannah Crispe's watercolour illustrations perfectly capture the character of the cheeky magpie dad as he aggressively, persistently and unwaveringly protects his nest and his chicks.

Visual humour abounds in this book, including the marvellously inventive array of optimistic "anti-magpie" headwear sported by the people in Magpie's firing-line. There is also drama, as poor Magpie is attacked by stone-throwing children. But, even wounded, Magpie is still determined to protect his offspring. Four pages of information at the back of the book cover everything from how clever magpies are, to extra information on why they swoop. This is a fabulous way to help young people appreciate a magnificent bird that is an important part of our urban environment.

In On the Trail of the Plains-wanderer: A Precious Australian Bird (CSIRO Publishing, $24.99) author Rohan Cleave takes a straightforward nonfiction approach, providing well-researched and engaging information about these critically endangered and unique Australian birds, which are the only surviving members of their particular bird family.

The plains-wanderer spends most of its life hiding under tussocky grass trying to avoid predators such as foxes and birds of prey. Julian Teh's delicate and detailed illustrations perfectly capture the unusual patterning of these characterful birds. Variety in perspective, framing and layout in his illustrations ensures that the book is visually interesting throughout.

While a plethora of information is embedded in the text, this book also provides a double-page spread of extra information, including a map, information about the threats these birds face, and insights into how people are working together to try to ensure that they'd don't become extinct.

Peregrines in the City (Wild Dog Books, $24.99) by Andrew Kelly and Sue Lawson also takes a nonfiction approach, but with lyrical overtones. The book concentrates on a moment in time, as a peregrine falcon lays her eggs and raises her chicks, with help from her attentive partner. Australian peregrine falcons have adapted to living in the heart of our cities, preying on pigeons and other suburban birds, and building their nests on the rooftops of skyscrapers rather than on clifftops.

Peregrines in the City is based on a family of falcons that have lived on a rooftop in Collins Street in Melbourne since 1991. With the help of humans, who have provided them with nesting boxes, the falcons have continued to breed high above the busy city streets. The text is instructive and engaging, while the stunning illustrations by Dean A. Jones capture the drama of the lives of these magnificent birds, which can dive faster than any other creature on earth.

A 'Falcon Facts' section at the end of the book provides extra information on these fascinating creatures. While a glossary of some of the more unusual terms used in the text would have been a helpful addition to this book, it is still a wonderful way to introduce children to these amazingly adaptive creatures.

In the stunningly designed An Important Message from Br Beaky (Wild Dog Book, $24.99) by Cassie Leatham and Sue Lawson, the authors use a very photogenic budgerigar to introduce important concepts about the need for reconciliation with our First Nations people.

Mr Beaky is a blue budgerigar who can speak thee languages - Taungurung, English and Budgie. In a totally engaging way, he encourages children to not judge people by the colour of their skin and to be respectful towards the traditional owners of Australia. The book combines photographs of budgerigars with stunning design work inspired by Aboriginal artwork. It also includes an information section on budgerigars, and a glossary. This is an innovative way to introduce important and sometimes difficult concepts to younger children using one of Australia's most iconic birds.

Flipper and Finnegan: The True Story of How Tiny Jumpers Saved Little Penguins (Albert Street, $19.99) is based a true story about how people from around the world helped save some of Australia's Little Penguins after a terrible environmental disaster.

Flipper and Finnegan live on Phillip Island in Victoria, heading off each day to fish in the sea, and returning every evening to sleep in their snug little burrows. But one day a terrible oil spill threatens their very existence. Along with many other penguins, Flipper and Finnegan are rescued by wildlife rangers and taken to a clinic to be cleaned. But the rangers run into a problem - how do you keep hundreds of penguins warm and stop them from ingesting the poisonous oil that coats their feathers? The unusual answer is tiny jumpers knitted by volunteers from around Australia and the world.

Sophie Cunningham's engaging retelling of this story from the point of view of just two of the affected penguins is embedded with a wealth of information about how Little Penguins live. Anil Tortop's digital cartoon-style illustrations have great child appeal and are full of colour, character and movement.

Plume: Festival Seeker (Hardie Grant, $26.99) is the third book in Tanya McCartney's delightful series about a plucky and ebullient young penguin who loves to jet around the globe on the Albatross Express. McCartney's digitally produced illustrations explode with colour and movement as she introduces both Plume and the reader to the wonders of fabulous festivals in Scotland, Brazil, India, Guatemala, Algeria, South Korea, Spain, Costa Rica and Fiji.

Like all the books covered here, Plume encourages children's imaginations to take flight, while providing a plethora of interesting facts about birds and the world they inhabit.