The friendly birds

If there is anything worth knowing about New Zealand, its that the bird life is amazing. Prior to the Maori arrival around 1200 A.D., the only mammals living in New Zealand were bats. This allowed the bird life to flourish and evolve into some very unique species. The largest bird was the moa, which could grow to 3 m in heigh and was flightless - it didn't even have stubs for wings. Maybe more extraordinarily was the Haast eagle, the largest eagle to have ever lived. They weighed 10 kg and had a wingspan of 2.6 to 3 m. They survived by preying on moa!

Unfortunately, the Maori and later the Europeans killed off much of the native bird life through hunting, habitat destruction, and the introduction of exotic species. Some interesting birds have managed to survive, such as the endangered kiwi, the kea (a mountain parrot), the weka, and the tui and the bellbird or korimako.



I didn't manage to see any kiwi, but we were visited by two kea at our hut, and I saw several weka begging for food at tourist sites. The kea were really cheeky and fun to watch. The clearly weren't concerned by our presence - they were more concerned about trying to rip the roof off the hut.


This weka I spotted searching for food in a little shed.

I also saw and heard several tui and bellbirds, but they are quite small and difficult to photograph. They are songbirds in the truest sense of the word, and hearing them greet the morning sun is a real pleasure. The tui are especially fun because they have two voice boxes and can therefore produce a wide range of sounds (some that humans are unable to register) and have they ability to mimic other sounds, such as bellbirds.