New Zealand

     Birds, Birds and more..


John loves the challenge of capturing birds and wildlife.  So I decided to create a post with all the birds he was able to capture during our visit.  Here are some of the photos he was able to take. 

Red-crowned Parakeet

Red-crowned Parakeet
Red-crowned Parakeet is a small parrot found in New Zealand in many locations.  It is characterized by the bright green plumage and red patch on its face.

Red-crowned Parakeet

Red-crowned Parakeet

Red-crowned Parakeet





Antipodes Island Parakeet


Spur-winged Plover
Spur-winged Plover are large wader birds know for their black head, yellow beak, and yellow ringed eyes that have little spurs extending downward from the eyes.



Tui
Tui are medium size birds with a white plumage at the throat and wings and back that from a distance look black, but actually have an iridescent blue to green feathers.  They can be seen throughout New Zealand.

Tui

Tui


North Island Robin (Pitoitoi)
North Island Robin is a small bird with gray feathers found throughout New Zealand.

North Island Robin (Pitoitoi)


North Island Robin (Pitoitoi)


North Island Robin (Pitoitoi)




Whitehead



Kaka Bird

Kaka Bird

Kaka birds are large parrots and their population is still listed as vulnerable.  Loss of habitat is a major problem for this bird.

Kaka Bird


Kaka Bird



Little Shag

Little Shag

Australian Coot

Little Shag

Little Shag

Juvenile Little Shag in flight

Juvenile Little Shag in flight

Juvenile Little Shag in flight

Little Shag

Australasian Swamphen (Pukeko)
Similar to the Takahe, however, this bird can fly and is not a colorful as the Takahe. 

Mama duck and her ducklings


Papango, (Scaup)


Male Bellbird chick

Male bellbird chick getting feed by adult bellbird

Female Bellbird

Kereru

Kereru birds are New Zealand pigeons are larger than pigeons found in North America.  They are found widely throughout New Zealand and are not endangered.

Weka

Weka are large flightless birds about the size of a chicken.   They are foragers and are not threatened.

Takahe

Juvenile Takahe (left) with adult Takahe (right)

Takahe is another flightless bird that was thought to be extinct for nearly 50 year due to over hunting and loss of habitat until a small population of this bird was found in Fiordland National Park of around 500 birds.  This bird is protected and conservationist have worked diligently to repopulate this bird.  It still is mostly found in bird sanctuaries and other highly protected areas.


Takahe



Swamp Harrier

The Swamp Harrier is one of the birds of prey found in New Zealand.


Kingfisher
Kingfishers can be found in many places around the world, but we did spot this guy in the wetlands area of a wildlife sanctuary in Wellington.


Kiwi (stuffed)

I would love to say that we actually saw a Kiwi in the wild, however, they are nocturnal birds and endangered.  We were able to see two in a nocturnal house at the Otorohanga Kiwi House, but the lights were too dim to be able to take photos.  The above picture is a taxidermy model of the little spotted Kiwi.


Quail

Juvenile Seagull



Tuatara


Tuatara

Tuatara

Tuatara

Tuatara is the largest reptile in New Zealand.  They used to be widely found on main land New Zealand, but are now only found in the wild on a few outlying islands.  Their numbers are low due to predation by rats and mice which are not endemic to New Zealand but were introduced from ships of settlers.  The only native mammal in New Zealand is a bat.

Tuatara



Spotted skink

There are not very many small lizards present in New Zealand.  Two of the few seen include the skink and gecko.  They are nearly impossible to find in the wild, but can be seen in some of the sanctuaries around the country.

Elegant Gecko

Elegant Gecko

Elegant Gecko

Elegant Gecko


Additional costs (all prices in New Zealand dollars):
Otorohanga Kiwi House - $26pp
Sanctuary Mountain - $30pp for access to explore southern exposure
             by yourself; Tours were available at an additional cost.
Kapiti Island Guided day trip - $299pp
Zealandia Ecosanctuary - $26pp

Coming soon...
Tongariro National Forest; 3 sisters and Egmont National Park; and more waterfalls...

On to the South Island



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  New Zealand     South Island  The South - including Invercargill, Bluff, the Catlins and Dunedin  Sunset from Bluff Hill Overlook The south was all about the wildlife:  birds, seals, penguins and of course more waterfalls.  We were lucky enough to see one Fiordland Yellow Crested Penguin in Milford Sound, but it was really far away.  So our visit to the southernmost reaches of the South Island was all about finding Penguins!   Were we successful in seeing penguins?  Stay tuned... Our first stop on the south coast was Cozy Nook and Monkey Island.  Cozy Nook was this charming little cove with rocks and ocean waves and little else. Cozy Nook  Monkey Island was a small little island just off the beach, that at low tide you can walk to and explore.  We were there pretty much at high tide and didn't want to wait 4-5 hours for low tide.  So we took a picture and moved on toward Bluff and Invercargil. Monkey Island The...
Read more
Image
  New Zealand         South Island  - Fiordland National Park, Including: Te Anau,  Milford and Doubtful Sounds  Milford Sound One of the most iconic sites in all of New Zealand is Milford Sound within Fiordland National Park.  So when putting this trip together, I knew that Milford Sound was a must see.  We also scheduled ourselves a significant amount of time in this area as the weather is notoriously unpredictable.  The second major consideration is where we were going to stay in order to be able to maximize our time exploring this National Park.  There are several options, including staying in Queenstown and Te Anau.  Milford Sound is approximately 4 hours from Queenstown and 2ish hours from Te Anau.  There are options to take helicopter or airplane flights into Milford Sound from Queenstown, as well as, bus day trips.  We decided, as we had a rental car, that we wanted to have the ability to adjust our ...
Read more
Image
  New Zealand     South Island  Mt. Cook/Aoraki National Park and Lake Tekapo Aoraki/Mt. Cook NP and Hooker Lake view from Hooker Valley Track The most amazing thing about New Zealand is the ever changing landscapes  practically every turn you make.  After leaving the southern coast, we traveled north and inland to the eastern side of the southern alps to spend some time in Lake Tekapo and Aoraki/Mt. Cook.   As we drove up the southeast coast on our way to Lake Tekapo, we stopped to check out the Moeraki boulders.   Moeraki boulders are large spherical rocks sitting along the beach.   They can be seen singly or in clusters predominantly in a linear fashion.   The boulders range from 2 to about 6 feet in diameter.   The boulders are grey/brown with septations that make them look like a turtle shell.  The boulders are formed from mud, silt and clay, while the septations are composed of calcite crystals. L...
Read more