Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the WorldRenowned for its unusual mammals, Australia is a land of birds that are just as unusual, just as striking, a result of the continent's tens of millions of years of isolation. Compared with birds elsewhere, ours are more likely to be intelligent, aggressive and loud, to live in complex societies, and are long lived. They're also ecologically more powerful, exerting more influence on forests than other birds. But unlike the mammals, the birds did not