From the dense rainforests of north Queensland to the cold, windswept heath lands of Tasmania, most regions of Australia are frequented by one or more species of doves and pigeons of which William Cooper claimed to have observed each in its exact habitat to ensure scientific accuracy. Pigeons and Doves in Australia is Joseph Forshaw and William Cooper's final bird monograph and the illustrations are some of Cooper's best. The 31 species of pigeons and doves found in Australia are all illustrated with a full page plate, supplemented throughout the text by smaller coloured drawings and study sketches.

William T (Bill) Cooper (1934-2015) began his career as a self-taught landscape and seascape artist in Newcastle, NSW. Copper first encountered the work of John Gould at a young age but, though he expressed an early desire to paint like the great 19^th century avian artist, there was no market for bird illustration in Australia at the time.

Instead, growing up in the suburban shantytowns of Newcastle during the 1940s, as a teen Cooper learned to be taxidermist at the now defunct Carey Bay zoo. Leaving school at 15, it was while working as a window dresser and clothing store salesman in the late 1950s that he began painting large private murals for hotels and private homes, and commercial landscapes and seascapes from 1964 onwards. Cooper's breakthrough came at the end of 1968 when he illustrated his first book, A Portfolio of Australian Birds. Then in April 1970, Cooper achieved his dream of painting spectacular birds when made his first visit out of Australia to see and paint Papua New Guinea's more unusual parrots.

Bill Cooper, the man whom legendary BBC TV naturalist Sir Richard Attenborough viewed as one of the greatest of all bird artists, went on to become world-famous, living with his wife and collaborator, Wendy, in tropical north Queensland and painting until his death, at the age of 81, in June 2015.