New Zealand Birds

I added the Australian birds from our recent trip to Hal's thread; but I decided to start a new thread for the birds we saw in New Zealand.

I'll start this thread with one of my favorites ... a crowned Black Shag. In New Zealand, most cormorants are called "shags". I don't know; but maybe the shaggy crown (like this one has) is how they got that name.

Another shot of the crested Black Shag.

Here's a Little-Pied Cormorant. For some reason, they do call this one a cormorant in NZ.

I wasn't lucky enough to see any Australian Black Swans in Australia; but I did see quite a few of them in New Zealand.

Another Australian Black Swan.

Mom and dad Australian Black Swans with their cygnet.

And finally, the cygnet all by itself.

Back to the shags for a minute ... this one is a Little Black Shag.

I don't know what you call a young shag; so for lack of a better name, here are three nest full of Little Black "Shag-etts".

One last shot of the nests.

Here's a Purple Swamphen. In NZ they are typically called by the Maori name, Pukeko.

I couldn't find a positive ID on this one; but it sure looks like a Little Blue Heron to me. Maybe Resin or someone else can confirm or correct me on that identification.

Here's a Black-Billed Gull.

Australia had lots of Silver Gulls; but not to be outdone, NZ had an equally large quantity of Black-Billed Gulls.

I really can't tell the difference; but these are Red-Billed Gulls in NZ. They sure look a whole lot like the Silver Gulls in Australia.

This big fellow is a Southern Black-Backed Gull (same as a Kelp Gull). He was huge ... just look at the size of him compared to the pigeons in the background.

Another shot of a Southern Black-Blacked Gull, which dwarfs the other Black-Billed Gulls.

(Oops, I still haven't learned how to type!)

This message was edited Dec 13, 2009 12:10 PM

These two big boys make the approaching duck look like a little sparrow.

Changing to ducks now, this one looks like a pure Grey Duck (or very close to it). Notice the teal color on its wing and well-defined face markings.

Again, the Grey Duck looks to be the same as the Pacific Black Duck in Australia and the US. I don't know if there's actually a difference, or if they are just called by a different name in NZ. Also, from what I read, due to extensive hybridization with mallards, the purebred Grey Duck is likely to be New Zealand's next extinct species of duck.

Another Grey Duck; but the blue wing markings tell me that this one is definitely a mallard hybrid. Also, the face markings are not as well defined as with a purebred Grey Duck.

I think these two are both hybrids; but the closer one looks more like a female mallard, and the further one looks more like a Grey Duck. Incidentally, with the Grey Duck, both sexes look similar; so I can't tell if the rear one is male or female.

Here's a little pile of fluff ... most likely mallard ducklings; but their parents were nowhere in sight.

Here's a Crested Grebe; but I just couldn't get a good picture of it.

Here's a female Paradise Shelduck. Her male counterpart (next photo) didn't look anything like her.

Now, here's the male Paradise Shelduck.

And, when you have a male and female, we all know what comes next; so here's a Paradise Shelduck duckling.

This one is a mama Greylag Goose and her gosling.

Next, here's a closeup of the Greylag Gosling all by itself. I don't think it was more than a week old, if that.

Here's a trio of New Zealand Scaups.

Another shot of the NZ Scaups.

This one is an awful photo and very heavily cropped; but I know I'll never see a wild penguin here in New Mexico. This one is a Fijordland Penguin taken at Milford Sound, NZ.

This one is a Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. It is only found in the Southern Alps region of New Zealand. Like a lot of other parrots, the Kea is a very sociable bird; but it can also be very destructive with their long sharp beak.

This Kea was showing off ... doing a balancing beam act on the roof of our hotel at Mt. Cook National Park.

Here's one last Kea photo, with its wings extend and showing their beautiful red underside.

Although it's another poor shot, I had to include a picture of a Tui. It was a lovely songbird and the only one I was lucky enough to see,

Here's a pretty little chaffinch. Boy was it hard to get a picture of ... it just kept moving every time I'd try to take its picture.

Here's a Goldfinch. Another pretty bird; but very elusive too.

This one is a Silvereye ... also called a Waxeye.

Next, here's a Song Thrush.

Here's my last photo ... a trio of Yellowhammers.