Courtney, John Edgar (1934 - 2025)

Summary

John Courtney was a farmer and grazier for over 50 years in the Inverell district of New South Wales. He was also an ornithologist, especially interested in cockatoos and parrots, closely observing those on his farm. His particular interests were in breeding and feeding behaviour and in plumage development. Among his publications was a study on lorikeets which was instrumental in the nomination of the Little lorikeet as vulnerable in New South Wales (2006, with Stephen Debus). In 1978 Courtney showed for the first time that juvenile food-begging calls are similar in closely related species and very different in distantly related species: for this he received the Avi-award from the Avicultural Society of Australia. Recordings of bird calls, which he presented at the 1974 International Ornithological Congress in Canberra, formed the basis of the first Field guide to Australian birdsong, which ran to 12 cassettes published over 22 years. Other interests included raptors and owls, and recording frog calls. In 1999 Courtney was awarded the J, N, Hobbs Memorial Medal of the Royal Australasian Ornithological Union.

Details

Chronology

1959 - 1997

Career position - Member, Royal Australasian Ornithological Union

1971 - 1978

Career position - New England Regional Representative, Royal Australasian Ornithological Union

1974

Career event - Assisted CSIRO Division of Entomology with research on the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo and cossid moth larvae in forest plantations

1974

Career event - Assisted in presenting requested bird calls to visitors to the 16th International Ornithological Congress, Canberra

1983

Award - Avi-award (jointly), Avicultural Society of Australia

1997 - 2009

Career position - Member, Birds Australia

1999

Award - J. N. Hobbs Memorial Medal, Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union

2009 - 2011

Award - Honorary Life Member, Birds Australia

2012 - 2025

Award - Honorary Life Member, BirdLife Australia

Related entries

Published resources

Journal Articles

• Courtney, J., ' Plumage development and breeding biology of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami', Australian bird watcher, 11 (261-73) (1986). Details
• Courtney, J., 'The juvenile food-begging calls and related behaviour in the Australian 'rose-tailed' parrots Alisterus, Aprosmictus and Polytelis; and a comparison with the Eclectus Parrot Eclectus roratus and Pesquet's Parrot Psittrichas fulgidus', Australian bird watcher, 17 (1997), 42-59. Details
• Courtney, J. and Debus, S. J. S., 'Breeding habits and conservation status of the Musk Lorikeet Glossopsitta concinna and Little Lorikeet G. pusilla in northern New South Wales', Australian field ornithology, 23 (2006), 109-24. Details
• Courtney, J. and Marchant, S., 'Breeding details of some common birds in south-eastern Australia', Emu, 71 (1971), 121-33. Details
• Debus, S., 'John Hobbs Medal 1999: citation, John Edgar Courtney', Emu, 99 (1999), 228. Details
• Debus, Stephen, 'Obituary: John Courtney 1934 - 2025', Australasian field ornithology, 42 (2025), 146-7, http://dx.doi.org/10.20938/afo42146147. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6231162. Details
• 'Courtney, John Edgar (1934-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1475685. Details

See also

• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details