Thursday, 2 January 2020

Awesome New Zealand!

I had a few weeks birding along South Island and North Island (as well as Stewart Island) in October/November 2019. It was my second trip to New Zealand but still plenty of new birds and some good photo opportunities to go after. We had several pelagic trips and saw some many cool seabirds. Lots of endemic birds too, including some really rare ones, such as New Zealand Storm Petrel, Black Stilt and Blue Duck!

Some of the native specials included Southern Brown Kiwi, Pipipi, Whitehead, Yellowhead, North Island Kokako, North Island Saddleback, South Island Saddleback, Wrybill, Double-banded Plover, Black-fronted Tern, White-fronted Tern, New Zealand Fantail, Grey Gerygone, New Zealand Bellbird, South Island Robin, North Island Robin, Weka, New Zealand Kaka, Kea, Rifleman, Stitchbird, New Zealand Fernbird, New Zealand Pipit, Brown Teal, and New Zealand Tomtit.

Seabirds were very well represented and included Yellow-eyed Penguin, Fiordland Penguin, Little Penguin, Antipodean Albatross, Buller's Albatross, White-capped Albatross, Salvin's Albatross, Wandering Albatross, Black-browed Albatross, Northern Royal Albatross, Northern Giant Petrel, Cape Petrel, Brown Skua, Grey-faced Petrel, Cook's Petrel, Pycroft's Petrel, Fairy Prion, Broad-billed Prion, White-chinned Petrel, Black Petrel, Westland Petrel, Flesh-footed Shearwater, Buller's Shearwater, Hutton's Shearwater, Fluttering Shearwater, Little Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, and Common Diving Petrel.

The passerines of New Zealand are some of the oldest in the world and the songs of the birds there are so incredible and unique. The Tui is one of these and has an amazing song, you can hear a sample of it on my ebird checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61168701

New Zealand has a ton of introduced species and it's always odd to see species such as Yellowhammer, Eurasian Skylark, Common Blackbird, Song Thrush, Eurasian Goldfinch, Common Chaffinch, and Lesser Redpoll so far from home!

The landscape on the South Island particularly was stunning and worth going to see even on its own right and the food was great throughout.

Here are a few pics of some of the birds we found...

Antipodean Albatross

Arctic Jaeger (chasing a Silver Gull)

Australasian Gannet

Black Stilt

Black-fronted Tern

Blue Duck

Brown Teal

Buller's Albatross

Buller's Shearwater

Cape Petrel

Cape Petrel

Common Diving Petrel

Cook's Petrel

Cook's Petrel

Double-banded Plover

Fairy Prion

Fiordland Penguin

Kea

Kea

Kea

Little Penguin

Morepork

New Zealand Bellbird

New Zealand Fantail

New Zealand Fernbird

New Zealand Grebe

New Zealand Kaka

New Zealand Pigeon

New Zealand Pipit

New Zealand Scaup

New Zealand Storm Petrel

New Zealand Tomit

North Island Kokako

North Island Robin

North Island Saddleback

Northern Giant Petrel

Northern Royal Albatross

Northern Royal Albatross

Pipipi

Red-crowned Parakeet

Rifleman

Salvin's Albatross

Salvin's Albatross

White-capped Albatross

Silver (Red-billed) Gull

South Island Pied Oystercatcher

South Island Robin

South Island Saddleback

Southern Brown Kiwi

Spotted Shag

Stitchbird

Tui

Variable Oystercatcher

Wandering Albatross

Weka

Westland Petrel

White-faced Storm Petrel

White-fronted Tern

Whitehead

Wrybill

Yellow-eyed Penguin

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