10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2018

This weeks posting finds me north of the Whananaki area, which is north of Auckland, New Zealand. We are spending some time here on my wife’s family property right on the water. Unfortunately, there have been no new birds that I can check off my “Wish List” but if you have to hang out in a place, this is pretty awesome.

New Zealand 100

New Zealand Groups Alaska Laws 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

While New Zealand is famous for its endemic oddities, once upon a time New Zealand also had many birds from groups and families that are no longer found here. There were once two species of goose, a merganser, and a pair of raven species. New Zealand had eagles. And eagles.

Eagles 102

Eagles New Zealand Bald Eagle Collecting 102

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

A European Starling in New Zealand made the news this week. This particular species is not native to New Zealand (similar to its status in North America). The woman in the video found it as a chick at a few days old and hand reared it. This is not the first talking European Starling on YouTube.

New Zealand 166

New Zealand North America Laws Humane 166

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2014

It’s mid-July, which among other things means that those of us in North America are starting to check local mudflats for returning shorebird migrants and waiting impatiently for the AOU to hurry up and create five species from the Clapper-King rail complex (the reasons for which we covered last year ). Gowen et al.

New Zealand 198

New Zealand Elephants Sparrows Ostriches 198

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Conservation was in the news again in the last few weeks here in New Zealand, and unfortunately not in a good way. As most people know cats, both feral and domestic, have a pretty big impact on wild birds and other wildlife, and the effect of mammals is particularly profound in New Zealand.

New Zealand 119

New Zealand Possums Cats SPCA 119

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Just a quick post today to appreciate one of New Zealand’s most attractive birds, the Paradise Shelduck. They are endemic to New Zealand, but unlike many endemic species that have not suffered at the hands of humans, in fact they have expanded their range as forests have been opened up for pasture.

New Zealand 157

New Zealand Sanctuary Suffering Ducks 157

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Since New Zealand is currently consumed by rugby fever and we haven’t the time to indulge in anything so tedious as birdwatching, I thought I’d dive back under the sea to introduce one of New Zealand’s most iconic aquatic organisms, the Australasian Snapper ( Pagrus auratus ).

New Zealand 153

New Zealand Goats Fish Protection 153

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2021

A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of New Zealand by Oscar Thomas is a photographic guide without a single poor photo. The emphasis of the book is on the species “that are unique, endemic and most commonly encountered in the field.” Where available, a Maori name is also mentioned.

New Zealand 173

New Zealand Birds Species Groups 173

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2013

People ascribe near mythic status to the members of the family Delphinidae (and other related families). If you love the idea of swimming with dolphins, New Zealand is a great place to do it. Not, may I hurry to add, because I had some issue with swimming in the ocean in New Zealand on South Island in near winter.

Dolphins 155

Dolphins Sharks New Zealand Albatross 155

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2013

The middle period of the year was very barren for new species, and this being New Zealand for birds in general. I have a deep love for members of the babbler family (or families now) and so the ten minutes I spent with a pair of Chestnut-crowned Babblers was heaven. Well, no, but yes?

2012 157

2012 New Zealand Thailand Albatross 157

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2018

It’s also the first drink featuring a non-North American species (I’ll admit there’s a bias in my selections that’s largely dictated by geography). What Kiwi Rising is named for is its use of the New Zealand harvests of another nonnative crop, the common hop.

New Zealand 100

New Zealand India Massachusetts United States 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

As I sat waiting for the bus home there was a wind, hardly a rarity here in New Zealand, but it was a warm wind, and that certainly is. The spring the birds I’ll show you today is far from the seat of New Zealand’s government where I now work. Sparrows are from the family Passeridae. Long may it last.

United Arab Emirates 161

United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia Oman Yemen 161

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2018

You might remember, or maybe not, that the last spot I birded, prior to boarding a plane for New Zealand, was Nisqually NWR, in a snow storm, and -5 ° F. Today, I saw a handful of Mallards , two Common Mergansers, and a Wood Duck Family. USA species – 111. Australia species – 242.

New Zealand 113

New Zealand Seattle Qatar South Africa 113

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2016

But there is one such bird in New Zealand, and it is, as far as I know the only songbird where the young bird has a unique name (I’m sure I’ll be corrected in the comments). On South Island, in a very few places, you might find a Jackbird. Jackbirds are young South Island Saddlebacks.

New Zealand 104

New Zealand Parrots Rats Bats 104

10,000 Birds

MARCH 16, 2011

home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / Stalking a Kiwi Icon Stalking a Kiwi Icon By Duncan • March 16, 2011 • 1 comment Tweet Share Most people, if asked, would confidently name what they thought the National Bird of New Zealand was.

New Zealand 146

New Zealand 2011 Deer New York 146

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2014

The broadbills are always a family* that birders visiting South East Asia want to see, and who could blame them? They are, with the pittas, the Old World’s only representatives of the otherwise American sub-oscine passerines (the New Zealand wrens being afforded their own distinct lineage).

Madagascar 167

Madagascar Malaysia New Zealand South America 167

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2019

They give short shrift to New Zealand’s birds, lumping them with odd names no one here uses because the names are shared elsewhere and God knows America isn’t going to take a hit for us. Then someone decided that the Canary Island birds were a separate species. I’m not blind to the list’s faults, though.

Iran 129

Iran Barn Owls New Zealand Europe 129

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2011

How many species there were is probably lost to history, but there were certainly many hundreds. Sadly, as I’ve explained before , most of these species became extinct as humans arrived on the islands, and with it one of the most astonishing radiations of birds imaginable. But here’s the thing. It didn’t used to be.

Tonga 165

Tonga New Zealand Samoa Fiji 165

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Long before I moved in New Zealand, or visited or even knew much about the wildlife here, way back then I knew about the Poor Knights. In New Zealand I’d even dived the astonishing Milford Sound in Fiordlands National Park, but I didn’t make it to New Zealand’s most famous dive site until January of 2009.

New Zealand 182

New Zealand Belize Vanuatu Fish 182

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

Here in New Zealand our shambolic exercise in not picking a new flag is becoming a) political and b) something that people will quickly stop paying attention to when the Rugby World Cup starts. They are large, scruffy looking kingfisher by ancestry, five species of that family founds across Australia and New Guinea.

Australia 157

Australia New Zealand Guinea Hunters 157

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 31, 2012

Living in New Zealand is fun and all, don’t get me wrong. Whether or not species are lifers or not in Asia for me is actually something of a guess, as my note-taking when I visited the region 10 years earlier could charitably be described as sloppy, and while I have some lists I lost a lot of sighting.

New Zealand 142

New Zealand Fur Malaysia Woodpeckers 142

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2014

Parrots captivate me more than any other bird family. For one, they are remarkably diverse with a little over 380 species spread over every continent except Europe (only introduced) and Antarctica. However, they do not occur evenly across their familial distribution. I am a self-proclaimed psittacophile. Most do not.

Parrots 168

Parrots Brazil Mauritius Dominica 168

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Four families are often recognized: storm-petrels, albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels , and diving-petrels. But several studies suggest that the storm-petrels actually belong in two different families and that diving-petrels are embedded within the rest of the petrels and shearwaters.

Albatross 181

Albatross Penguins Groups New Zealand 181

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2013

In his comment in last week’s post on the Marlborough Sounds , Beat writer Jochen described the New Zealand Fantail as one of the best birds in the world. wakawaka, the New Zealand Fantail is a delightful inhabitant of New Zealand, and one of my favourite local birds. You get a lot of shots like this.

New Zealand 175

New Zealand Samoa Fiji Killing 175

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2018

New Zealand had been good, Australia was incredible, and South Africa was almost life altering. In the end, I ended up with 9 species, 4 of which were new to the list, the Black-crowned Sparrow Lark, White-checked Bulbo, House Crow , and the Indian Silverbill. Where do you go from there? Here is that White-cheeked Bulbo.

Qatar 116

Qatar Sparrows South Africa Africa 116

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

After writing this last sentence, I looked up the species in the HBW and found the sentence “Song poorly documented” in the appropriate section, while with regard to calls, the description is that “call is a two-note raspy nasal ‘ryeeh-reh’”. In New Zealand, the Spotted Dove is an introduced species.

Singapore 147

Singapore Mountain Goats Birds Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2014

Not forever mind, I’ll still be living here in New Zealand and carrying on as its beat writer here (I may even write about New Zealand again some time). You may not get the species counts that the race delivers, but you’ll have memories burned into your skull. And you’ll meet amazing people too.

Uganda 161

Uganda Sharks Africa New Zealand 161

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2013

Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. Its mostly found on the ground in thickets or the edges of dense vegetation and usually in small family parties. Another not very pink species is the Pink-footed Puffback.

Africa 211

Africa Somalia Pelicans Mozambique 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2014

As New Zealand’s beat writer I think I’ve done an okay job of discussing the birding of an entirely different island for most of the year, so it’s only fair that I keep that winning streak going by talking about my target for the trip. It’s a species that has bedeviled and bewitched me over the years.

Sharks 173

Sharks Leopards Whales Whaling 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2012

The next day in exactly the same spot I encountered a Shining Bronze Cuckoo , a species I have only seen twice in five years living in New Zealand. In both cases I was able to watch them for quite a while, quite a treat when it comes to skulky members of the cuckoo family!

New Zealand 157

New Zealand Game India Eagles 157

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2014

But today, briefly, let’s recall that I am supposed to be the New Zealand beat writer. I’m pleased to do this because two bits of the puzzle of New Zealand’s faunal history were in the news today, and besides, it means I don’t have to think about some tropical idyll in this miserable Antipodean winter day.

New Zealand 162

New Zealand Penguins Sea Lions Lions 162

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

This location is great as it is close to Jeanne’s Family, as well as a very short drive to the Billy Frank Jr. Over 200 species of birds can be found on the refuge, depending on the time of year. I better run, I have a little more gear to track down and a whole bunch of new birds to study up on! Nisqually NWR.

Fox 127

Fox Washington Geese Sparrows 127

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2013

The centre now encompasses native bush into which some of these endangered species have been released. (It Kiwi, New Zealand icons par excellence , are rather endangered. The suite of predators introduced to New Zealand, on the whole, can’t do to much damage to adult kiwi. So what was going on?

New Zealand 161

New Zealand Raised Rats Endangered Species 161

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

Or, one of the 145 species of Glass frogs living in the Cental and South American rainforests, I could look through the transparent skin on their undersides and see their internal organs. All species of frogs and toads share the fact that they are amphibian creatures, they have two types of skin gland, four legs, and, well, they jump.

Reptiles 185

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 185

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 30, 2013

Also known as the Flyeater, this tiny bird is the only representative of the Australasian warbler family found in mainland Asia, and very similar to my own Grey Warblers in New Zealand, even their songs. Then, among tall grasses, a flock of Bayan Weavers, the first representative of this family I had seen in 8 years.

Thailand 102

Thailand New Zealand Family Bats 102

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

If you’re into family ticks, and into armchair ticks, well, I hope you’ve been to New Zealand, because the island just got another endemic bird family. That the three species of mohoua (genus Mohoua ) are New Zealand’s newest family is hardly a surprise.

Family 179

Family New Zealand Birds Parrots 179

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2011

And so, I learn from this page that each bird’s scientific name is unique, a combination of its genus and species names. In the earlier chapters, the maps illustrate bird species distribution. The Takahe, a large flightless bird endemic to New Zealand, was thought to be extinct, and then was rediscovered in 1948.

Albatross 198

Albatross Birds Campaign Protection 198