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A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

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.

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Mega Rarity Tour of New Zealand – Extinction Special

10,000 Birds

We’ll also keep our eyes open for several members of the New Zealand wren family. One of the oldest families of songbirds, which broke off before the oscines and sub-oscines split – and before New Zealand and Antarctica did! New Zealand Bittern. It certainly has no known relatives.

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Acclimatisation Societies of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

New Zealand has a very odd biota these days. There are the endemics, which are odd in their own way, and then there introduced species, which are so varied in their type and origin that you get the feeling you’ve arrived at the aftermath of a small zoo that escaped. If New Zealand had a poor fauna, they would enrich it.

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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. You get a lot of shots like this.

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Pieces of the New Zealand Puzzle

10,000 Birds

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.

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New Zealand Loses Another Endemic

10,000 Birds

I almost missed it, but New Zealand lost another endemic species recently. Now I’ve written before about how careless this country is with species, having lost around 60 endemics since the arrival of man to introduced species and hunting. The Red-billed Gull is no more. Good night sweet prince.

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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. A study, which seems to be making news around the world, has shown that feeding birds in gardens seems to favour non-native species and can lower numbers of native species. New Zealand has a great deal more introduced species than these other places.