An ornithologist is out to find definitive proof on the theory Australian desert birds of prey intentionally spread fire to smoke out their unsuspecting targets.

Northern Territory lawyer-turned ornithologist Bob Gosford is determined to prove something he said Australian Aborigines have known about for centuries.

"Black kites and brown falcons come to these fronts because it is just literally a killing frenzy, it's a feeding frenzy, because out of these grasslands come small birds, lizards, insects, everything fleeing the front of the fire."

Mr Gosford has spent decades exploring the field of ethno-ornithology — the study of cultural bird knowledge.

"My interest was first piqued by a report in a book published in 1964 by an Aboriginal man called Phillip Roberts in the Roper River area in the Northern Territory, that gave an account of a thing that he'd seen in the bush, a bird picking up a stick from a fire front and carrying it and dropping it on to unburnt grass."

Mr Gosford said he began delving deeper into Aboriginal understandings of birds of prey, but could not find any evidence or link between traditional knowledge and mainstream ornithology literature.

So, he decided he would work to bridge that gap.

"I've spent the last 10 years and more working in this field of ethno-ornithology, in Australia, in New Zealand, with Papua New Guinean people and increasingly with people in places like Africa and Central America," Mr Gosford said.

"When I talked to Aboriginal people about it later, they said, 'Well that's what the birds do, that bit in the ceremony is us telling the story to those people that don't know, about this is how these birds behave'."

Proof will show how 'valuable Aboriginal culture can be'

Mr Gosford said he had never actually seen a bird at a fire front, intentionally spreading the fire.

So he said he decided to appeal to people to come forward if they had seen birds behaving in that way.

Mr Gosford said he received 16 firsthand accounts from people who said they had witnessed birds spreading bushfires to flush out prey.

Mr Gosford said he will not be satisfied until he has the birds starting fire himself, and capture it on camera ( Twitter: Bob Gosford )

The stories he received came from stockmen, fire fighters, and other researchers, including retired anthropologist Kim Akerman.

Mr Akerman, who has had years of experience in central and northern Australia, said he saw a black kite propagating fire in June 1977, when he was on a field trip in the central Kimberley with a group of Aboriginal people.

"We were on the edge of the fire front waiting to see if any wallabies and things, agile wallabies would be driven out for the hunters in the group," he said.

"A black kite was swooping down and picking up burning twigs and things and carrying them 15, 20 feet and dropping them again into grass and spinifex ahead of it."

Mr Akerman said when they witnessed this behaviour they thought the birds could be flushing out prey.

"I guess I was probably a bit biased because I understood from the people I worked with that was pretty normal," he said.

"So in a way, it was great to see, it's sort of like you know there's dolphins, but when one actually does a somersault in front of you, it's a privilege."

Mr Akerman said he saw it again on a field trip in Broome around 1980, where he said he believed the birds spread the fire with the intention of flushing out their prey.

"To me it's also encompassed in a lot of the mythology," he said.

Mr Gosford said he would not be satisfied until he saw the behaviour for himself, and captured it on camera.

So this winter, Mr Gosford will be chasing fires across the central Australian desert alongside researchers from the United States.

He said he hoped by filming birds spreading fires, others would see how valuable Aboriginal knowledge could be to the broader community.

"If my work shows that their work is even more valuable because of the knowledge that those rangers have, not just of their own culture but also of the country, and of the species that live in it, then I'm more than happy with that result," he said.