Noel McKenna’s lifelong interest in birds began in childhood. Growing up in Brisbane, he regularly fed the birds at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary during Gold Coast holidays with his family. For Birds of Australia 2004, he sourced images from The Field Guide to Birds of Australia by Graham Pizzey and Frank Knight. Describing his approach to the painting, McKenna said:

I have always liked birds, so why not do all the birds of Australia? I bought some books, but quickly realised that, with the number of birds in Australia, I would have trouble getting them all on the size of map I had been doing, so I decided to do just birds that lived in a limited area, as well as endangered ones.