What Bird is That? identifying native forest birds

Forest Birds ID card from "In the Bush" - now free to download

Interested in New Zealand's native birds and want to be able to identify them? Ten or so years ago I'd be out in the forest not sure what I was hearing or seeing. Here's some of the steps that I took to improving my knowledge of New Zealand birds.

Set yourself a bird-watching challenge: for example, take part in the New Zealand Garden Bird Survey on this week from 24 June to 2 July.  Gardens are a good place to start because often birds are easier to see in a garden and you can learn bird-watching techniques (see tips below) that will help you when you are out in the forest, beach or wetland. The Top 10 birds in gardens in 2016 were:

Birds at the Beach - vulnerable and at risk

Red-billed gulls - tarāpunga
Nationally Vulnerable

Solitary stalkers, noisy pairs or squawking flocks - we rather take our shore birds for granted. Gulls in particular seem to be ever present, squabbling over a dead fish on the beach or trying to steal our fish and chips. So it came as a surprise to realise that red-billed gulls (tarāpunga) are considered to be 'nationally vulnerable'. The second surprise was that of all the birds in the bush-clad seaside village of Pukerua Bay, the ones that are under threat are almost all shore birds rather than those that live in the bush.

Tui Chicks in the Garden

In my last blog I wrote about birds' nests in the garden, saying that sometimes old nests get blown down in the wind. What I wasn't expecting was to find a new nest blown down. The tui nest got blown down in a storm.

The nest fell into a flax bush

Questions about Birds on the Beach

There's a place where two beaches meet, a point that sticks out a little with rocks and some sand. Yesterday this point was full of terns, all facing the same direction.

Waiting out a storm? Waiting for news of where the fishing is good? Just resting?