Autumn Nature Walk - a splendid kohekohe year

Kohekohe flowers

Cascades of blooms signal a splendid flowering year for the kohekohe. It's time to get out into our lowland coastal forests and enjoy the flowers and marvel at their abundance. They are already flowering now and should go on flowering through into June.

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: