Australia has over 750 species recorded living on or visiting its shores. Some of these birds are likely to be accidentals that are only recorded once or twice a century. Others, such as many of the waders like the plovers and sandpipers, are merely using the country as a stop for a few months as they pass through. Still others, such as many of the cuckoos, the metallic starlings or the Pied Imperial Pigeons, are regular visitors from New Guinea or Asia, arriving here in the summer to breed. But most are residents and many of those birds, just like our marsupials, are unique to the continent. There are more endemic species than any other country in the world, with 300 of the species being found nowhere else on Earth.
 
Genetic testing over the last few decades has revealed that most Australian birds are not at all closely related to those overseas, even though they may superficially resemble them. And so within the Australian bird field guides, we have robins that are not robins, warblers that are not warblers, flycatchers that are not flycatchers, magpies that are not magpies, magpie larks that are not magpies nor larks, cuckoo-shrikes that are not cuckoos nor shrikes, and shrike-thrushes that are neither shrikes nor thrushes.

An Australasian Pelican