Soon after the indoor meeting held in November 2010 with the honorable speaker, Eling, who is one of the well known traveling birders here, we made our own birding trip to New Zealand. Given we had only two weeks available, we focused on the birding hotspots only on the South island. As in most of our birding trip abroad, endemic birds are always our targets and, according to Avibase, some 49 out of 65 endemics can be found in the South Island. From our study before the trip, finding endemic birds in the South Island can be easy and difficult. With strong mind of conservation in most people of New Zealand, some of well preserved sites can still provide close and easy encounter of the endemic birds. Nevertheless, because of loss of habitats resulted from development for the agriculture & society as well as introduced competitors & predators, some of the endemic birds are now difficult, if not impossible, to be found in the South Island. Thanks to one of the conservation programs successfully implemented in New Zealand, some of the endemic birds have been relocated to predator-free, small outlying islands with strict control and protection on the environment. Among the three major hotspots we visited in this trip, the third-largest island, Stewart Island, is our favorite destination for not only kiwi spotting but the gateway to an accessible predator-free island, Ulva Island. The photos shown below are by no means an exclusive list of the endemic birds of New Zealand but shared for appreciation of the distinctive birdlife and effort made by the local on preserving endangered birds through various conservation programs.
1. Brown Kiwi
2. Yellow-eyed Penguin
3. Stewart Island Shag (Pied Phase)
4. Stewart Island Shag (Bronze Phase)
5. Spotted Shag
6. Westland Petrel
7. Paradise Shelduck, male
8. Paradise Shelduck, female
9. New Zealand Scaup
10. Weka
11. Royal Albatross
12. Variable Oystercatcher, black phase
13. Black Stilt (captive)
14. Banded Dotterel
15. kaka
16. Brown Creeper
17. New Zealand Robin, South Island
18. New Zealand Robin, Stewart Island
19. Yellowhead
20. Rifleman
21. Fernbird
22. Grey Warbler
23. Tomtit, male
24. Tomtit, female
25. Tui
26. Bellbird
27. New Zealand Pigeon
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Last edited by nfelix at 16/06/2011 08:05 ]
