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A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

Finally, not so long ago digital photography opened doors to a never before seen number of amateurs shooting at professional level, including one of New Zealand’s youngest nature photographers, Oscar Thomas. A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of New Zealand by Oscar Thomas is a photographic guide without a single poor photo.

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Restless New Zealand Fantails

10,000 Birds

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. Fantails don’t do necks.

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9 Years in New Zealand

10,000 Birds

As I mentioned in passing last week, I’ve just passed nine years since I moved to the Land of the Long White Cloud, Aotearoa, New Zealand. New Zealand is simultaneously birdy and not birdy. And while New Zealand has lost many species, it has also been a world leader in working out how to save those that remain.

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Acclimatisation Societies of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

New Zealand has a very odd biota these days. They took dogs to Australia, chickens across the Pacific, rabbits to England, horses to the New World, and then brought potatoes back. So that New Zealand would end up with quite a few species of animal not originally found here is hardly surprising of itself.

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New Zealand Loses Another Endemic

10,000 Birds

I almost missed it, but New Zealand lost another endemic species recently. Hell, we gained a new endemic in New Zealand just a few weeks back when the Stewart Island Shag was split into the Otago Shag and Foveaux Shag. But the prevailing Zeitgeist wasn’t enough to save our gull. Good night sweet prince.

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Kereru, the New Zealand Pigeon

10,000 Birds

The New Zealand Pigeon , often known by its Maori name Kereru , or colloquially as woodpigeon, is a large and conspicuous part of New Zealand’s avifauna. As pigeons go it is very large, measuring up to 50 cm, and it is one of two species of pigeon endemic to New Zealand.

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Think twice before feeding birds in New Zealand

10,000 Birds

I don’t feed birds much here in New Zealand. Leaving aside the jingoism (as one always must with that paper) the important point is that the lessons of New Zealand are not necessarily applicable to the UK, or America, or indeed anywhere other than New Zealand and the other islands of the Pacific.