On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
As a special holiday treat, we have a week in New Zealand, courtesy of Albatrossity.
Starting tonight, for this week and next week: Ghosts of Holidays Past. Send in your photos! You can send a full set with the On the Road form, or just send one or two that will go into a group post. Be sure to include some text so we know what we’re looking at. If you want to send photos but not have them identified as yours, let me know that, too.
Albatrossity
I have been fortunate to visit New Zealand 5 times. The first in the early 1990’s, to attend a scientific conference, and it was in August (mid-winter in the Antipodes). I remember marveling at the cold drippy weather, the American TV shows that seemed popular there (e.g., WKRP in Cincinnati, why?), and the fact that sporting events being broadcast included lots and lots of sheep dog trials. The people were incredibly friendly, the scientific conference was productive, and I wanted to go back sometime.
Several years ago my brother-in-law and his wife emigrated there, and are now permanent residents. The process of immigrating to NZ is long and arduous, but they decided (most presciently) that US politics was in a continuous down-spiral and they wanted to be in a civilized country instead. They settled in Nelson, which is at the north end of the South Island and at a latitude similar to that of Arcata CA, or Providence RI for you east-coasters. It is a lovely city, and, as the locals will tell you even without you asking, it is supposedly in the sunniest part of New Zealand.
Since they moved there we have spent four Christmases with them, and a trip to the Southern Hemisphere in late December is indeed a holiday treat in itself. We have spent time on the North Island, the South Island, and several of the other islands in the archipelago that calls itself New Zealand. Some of the place we saw were the standard tourist stops (Auckland, the Southern Alps, Wellington), others were more idiosyncratic (wildlife sanctuaries and coastal towns with interesting opportunities like birdwatching trips or penguin colonies).
Lots of folks go to NZ to see Lord of the Rings sites or trivia; others go for the adventuring venues like spelunking, fishing, or bungee jumping. We did none of those; if you were hoping to hear about that sort of thing, there are other venues. So here are five OTR posts with my photos and commentary about the parts of that beautiful country that I have visited and even re-visited. I hope you enjoy them, and I urge you all to find a way to get to New Zealand if you can, no matter what attractions you wish to visit there. Here is a map showing all the places mentioned in this post.
Today’s post is about the native landbirds of NZ. You may not know this, but the landmass that would become New Zealand split off from Gondwanaland before the extinction of the dinosaurs, and mammals at that time were small and rare. None of them survived in New Zealand; the only land mammals are three species of bats. The descendants of the dinosaurs that we know as birds filled all of the available niches, and, in a land without mammalian predators, evolved in interesting ways.
Many nested on the ground. Many were flightless. Many have a detectable odor, which would be disadvantageous if olfactorily-adept predators were around. Many were huge. All of which became immediate disadvantages when the Maori arrived, only 800 years ago. So a lot of them are now extinct, either at the hands of the Maori or the later European arrivals, and many as a result of the introduction of rats, cats, stoats, and other mammalian predators. Although depleted by these extinctions, the avifauna is rich, unique, and a great attraction for birders and biologists around the world.

It would be hard to pick an iconic bird for New Zealand, but this one, the Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) might be at the top of my list. It is endemic to NZ, and the only species in the genus). It is a honeyeater, dependent on nectar from flowering plants, and is found throughout the country in areas both urban and rural. Loud and attention-getting, unlike most New Zealanders, this one was defending its territory from a juvenile interloper on Tiritiri Matangi Island, a wildlife sanctuary in the Auckland area.

Another candidate for iconic NZ bird is the New Zealand Bellbird (korimako to the Maori, Anthornis melanura to taxonomists). Also found throughout the country, and a beautiful singer. It is reported that when Captain Cook’s boats approached the islands, the sound of birdsong, mostly bellbirds, was noticeable from a great distance. This one was on Maud Island, another sanctuary island in Marlborough Sound at the northern end of the South Island.

The New Zealand Pigeon (keruru, Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) is an impressive beast. On my first vist to NZ I was wandering through a rainy forest when one of these flew quite close over my head. It is the size of a duck, makes a lot of wing noise, and it really startled me. This one is eating a kakawa (Piper excelsum) fruit, and was also on Maud Island. After it left I sampled one of these fruits; as might be expected from the genus name, it was very peppery and spicy!

The Piwakawaka, or NZ Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa) is a beloved bird in towns and countryside throughout New Zealand. It is the only species of fantail in the country, and is named for its habit of flicking its tail open and closed to startle the insects that it feeds on. This one was in a park near Auckland.

The Weka (Gallirallus australis) is a sturdy species of flightless rail endemic to New Zealand. Unlike many rails, it is a landlubber, and wanders the forests and gardens feeding on just about anything animal or vegetable. There are at least two subspecies (northern and southern); this one was in the Abel Tasman National Park on the South Island.

There are several species of parrots in NZ, and all of them are much diminished in numbers due to habitat loss after most of the forests were cleared by the British settlers. This one, making itself at home on Christmas Day 2015 in our rented cottage on Stewart Island, is a Kaka (Nestor meridionalis). It is common in wilder parts of the country, and is making a recovery in some of the urban areas where wildlife sanctuaries (e.g. Zealandia in Wellington) have provided nesting habitat in predator-free enclosures.

Another threatened species of parrot is the Kakariki (aka Red-crowned Parakeet, Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae). Formerly widespread across the archipelago, it is versatile in its eating habits and thus has been able to adapt somewhat to human infestation of its homeland. As you can see here, it even eats the seeds of a European invasive plant, the dandelion. Photographed on Kapiti Island, another sanctuary island on the west coast of the North Island, near Wellington.

The third parrot in this series is the Kea (Nestor notabilis), photographed in the alpine village of Arthur’s Pass on the South Island. This is the only truly alpine parrot in the world, and is known for its audacity around people, This one was stealing pats of butter from an outdoor dining area, and one of its co-conspirators took a sip from Elizabeth’s chocolate milkshake. It is an endangered species these days, and habitat loss associated with climate change is not doing it any favors.

A widespread passerine, the Grey Warbler (riroriro, Gerygone igata) is one of the country’s smallest birds, weighing in at about 6 grams. It is heard more than it is seen, and I considered myself fortunate to get a good shot of this one, in a cemetery in Nelson.

One of the most endangered species of birds in the world, the South Island Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) is a rare survivor of the large flightless vegetarian avifauna that characterized NZ before the arrival of humans. It is the largest living rail in the world. It was thought to be extinct in the early 20th century, but was rediscovered in the dense forests of the Southern Alps in 1948. On my first visit to NZ in 1991 I saw one, in a cage at the Mt Bruce sanctuary. There were probably none in the wild at that time. These three, photographed in 2014 on Maud Island, represented over 1% of the population at that time. Today, thanks to aggressive breeding programs and habitat restoration, there are approximately 400 Takahe in the world.
eclare
The Kakariki is stunning!
raven
Awesome!
SiubhanDuinne
Amazing birds, amazing photos!
Spanky
Timely post, as the solstice happened just a few minutes ago, and the sun is now heading north. Sol Invictus!
It may just be the small sample size, but all the birds seem to have heavier bills than their North American counterparts. True?
JPL
Thank you for sharing your photos with us, and thank you for the accompanying story. I imagine that you wish you could be in New Zealand this holiday season, but unfortunately for us, trump got in the way.
Rob
Another thank you for sharing these photos.
Nelle
We’ve traveled to many of the same places but you are helping me see them with another angle. I’m a Kansas native who married an Alaskan bush pilot/hydrogeologist. In New Zealand, we lived in Taupo, at the center of the North Island while my husband worked at Geological Nuclear Sciences. I’m quite fond of the tui and describe its song like a gurgling, raucous drainpipe, alternating with sweet melody. In spring (late September) they would drink the nectar of manuka blossoms and sing and squawk like drunken frat boys.
I joined the Monday walkers and we would tramp so many trails there, often up to 20 km. My husband and I took four days to walk the Queen Charlotte Sound track.
Gvg
New Zealand was beautiful when I visited, but I found it’s nature to be rather unsettling. The island continent was mostly below the sea for a long time and it has only been above for a relatively short time. This means it doesn’t have much soil on top of the rocks and it really doesn’t have the volume of life that I am used to at home. The forests were so quiet it was spooky to me. There were not many buzzes or chirps or rustles. Quiet. I hadn’t realized how many things were all around me normally. Insects, lizards, frogs.
The terrain is really steep and the mountain are barely covered by plants because they are so new. New Zealand had a lot of helicopters and when you look at the terrain you can see why.
it was quite a contrast to Australia which has a really old continuous ecology. Seeing both gave me a lot to think about back home. It was different enough to make me see home fauna more thoughtfully. I can’t explain well, but it was like seeing behind the scenery, how things worked.
Albatrossity
@Gvg: Interesting perspective. Yes, lots of it was underwater for a lot geological history since NZ split off from Gondwanaland and separated from Australia 70 million years ago. But some of it stayed above water, obviously, and many of the land species there are older than almost any other land species (e.g. Tuatara). The quiet in the forests is simply because most of the native birds have been wiped out by humans and introduced critters like rats and stoats. Australia always had mammals, and the birds evolved with predators; NZ birds did not, and they were easy pickings.
Cook’s expedition reported, in their first encounter with the islands in 1769 that the sound of bird song from the heavily forested islands of NZ could be heard at quite a distance from land. Those voices are much diminished these days.
Albatrossity
@Spanky: I wouldn’t say that the birds of NZ generally have heavier bills than their North American counterparts, but some of those in this selection certainly do. But we don’t have many parrots in NA these days, so it’s hard to know.
@Nelle: Wow, that sounds like a great adventure. We visited Taupo but didn’t spend a lot of time there. Hope you get back soon. And yes, we were supposed to be there right now; thanks to the world-class incompetence and corruption of the president, we are not. Perhaps next year, we hope!
Dorothy A. Winsor
We were in NZ maybe 10 years ago and were amazed at the colorful birds just flying and hopping around. The country is beautiful in general. And yes, we did go to all the LOTR sites.
Albatrossity
@Gvg: Found that quote from the Cook Expedition. From here.
When James Cook first sailed the Endeavour to New Zealand, his botanist, Joseph Banks, kept a journal. Anchored in Charlotte Sound:
MelissaM
Ooh, more Albatrossity birds! The piwakawaka looks cute and furry. And looking at the thick legs of the weka, I’m giving him a wide berth. I’m betting he can fight!
Denali
@Gvg,
Yes, I had that same feeling when we visited New Zealand- where are the squirrels, chipmunks, etc. in the forests? We were told that they were exterminated because they ate the eggs of the birds. I never quite believed it; I thought it more likely that cats and dogs killed the birds. I loved the astounding beauty of New Zealand, but we visited Christchurch after the earthquake and saw the immense damage there. The south island is on a large fault and is very active. So it would be a definite concern.
@Albatrossity,
Amazing photos of the birds. I did not know there were other flightless birds there besides the kiwi. I only saw one kiwi- and it was in captivity.
Albatrossity
@Denali: The squirrels, chipmunks, etc were not “exterminated” They were never there. It was a land of birds, with just 3 bat species to represent the mammals prior to the arrival of the Maori just 800-900 years ago. No squirrels. No chipmunks. No rats, cats, stoats, dogs, hedgehogs, possums, etc until the arrival of humans.
stinger
Albatrossity, you enrich my life.
JanieM
Wonderful photos, as usual. Even though I pay only a modest amount of attention to birds, it’s fascinating how your North American portraits always feel like birds I might see if I walk out my door (not that they always are, mind you) — whereas these, with a couple of exceptions, feel quite exotic. And so beautiful!
Also, re: comment #15 — only 3 bat species representing the mammals — that’s amazing! Are there other Pacific Islands that had a similar profile?
arrieve
Oh this made my day. Thank you, Albatrossity. I did see a bellbird in New Zealand but the rest of these wonderful creatures are new to me.
Visiting New Zealand (and Australia), where the geologic and human history are so different from North America/Europe/Asia is such a revelation. We truly live on a wondrous planet, and so many people never want to leave the United States!
Princess Leia
What a gift these photos and your insight on them are tome during these days. Only wish we humans weren’t so destructive. How sad that so many of these amazing creatures are endangered. That we might be the last generations to know them saddens me and I feel so powerless to change the trajectory of their demise.
J R in WV
Fabulous post, thanks so much!!
Albatrossity
@JanieM: “Are there other Pacific Islands that had a similar profile?”
Not sure of that; many of them could have been similar prior to their inhabitation by the Polynesians. NZ was the last large inhabitable land mass to be discovered by humans, only about 800-900 years ago. That is barely the blink of an eye in geological time, and not much in human terms either. In comparison, Tahiti was settled by Polynesian peoples about 2500 years ago.
way2blue
Love the Kaka parrot. Gorgeous. (I have a friend who—years ago—spent a couple years in New Zealand, hired to kill ‘invasive deer’ on the South Island.)
Albatrossity
@way2blue: Yes, deer as well as moose (!) and elk were imported and allowed to roam the countryside, along with game birds and salmon, so that the settlers could pretend that they were still in jolly old England.
Deer are still pests there, but they are also raised on farms. In fact, the best venison I ever had in my life was in a dinky town on the South Island, where there are plenty of deer raising operations. I’m not usually a fan of venison, but the farm-raised version is very tasty!
Chris T.
Late to thread, but yes, NZ is beautiful, from Cape Reinga to Invercargill (and I’ve been to both ends though not yet to some of the surrounding islands).
Nelson and Blenheim compete for the “sunniest” claim.
On my visits, I go to Queenstown, but my heart says I should live in Nelson. Alas, non-citizen here.
Cindy Bielke
I’m delighted and inspired by Dave Rintoul’s beautiful photos and insightful commentary. Never imagined wanting to visit New Zealand—just never got on my travel radar screen—but now it’s moving to the top place on my post-Covid travel dream list. If I never make it over, I will feel like I’ve seen some of its best aspects because of Dave.