Guest Blogger: Co-campaign Manager for the Karearea, Alan Macdougall
No animal should to be anthropomorphised - but this is politics and I’m going to do it anyway: the falcon is a proud, fearless creature; as contemptuous of humans as it is casually brilliant at predation. The Karearea, or New Zealand Falcon, absolutely deserves to be this year’s Bird of the Year.
It is our only remaining endemic member of the raptor family, a group with an interesting but mostly unfortunate story in these islands. There is the enduring ornithological mystery of why the peregine falcon, the world’s most widespread bird of prey, is not found in New Zealand. Could the locals have been too tough? There was the now-extinct Haast’s eagle, the fearsomely large cousin of the Karearea, that would have been sufficiently large to carry off small children.
Did explorer Charles Douglas shoot the last two of these in a trip up the Landsborough in the 1870s, or did he merely shoot the last two of the also now-extinct, but slightly smaller, Eyles’ Harrier?
The Grey Warbler song is imprinted on all of our memories, and is more of a national anthem than, well….. our national anthem.
For years the humble Grey Warbler has been ignored, marginalized and even persecuted. One year it was depicted in a Forest and Bird illustration for Bird Of The Year coming LAST! We must all say… never again, never again.
Grey Warbler FACTS.
New Zealand’s most successful endemic bird post-human invasion.
New Zealand’s smallest bird (equal with the Rifleman)
New Zealand’s most often heard endemic song
Our hardest working bird. They rear cookoos as well as their own brood.
It appears in more poetry than any other New Zealand bird.
Guest Blogger: Alex Milne, Campaign Manager for the South Island Kokako
The South Island kokako deserves this title for its shear tenacity. Despite claims of extinction for the past 40+ years, it keeps popping up. Sightings are invariably chance encounters by hunters and trampers. Others hear resonating haunting calls that carry and linger.
Though organ song is seldom heard, it etches itself into the minds of those privileged enough to hear it. In the words of West Coast identity Charlie Douglas in 1892 “ The cry of the crow is indescribably mournful . The wail of the wind through a leafless forest is cheerful compared to it. Perhaps the whistling of the wind through the neck of an empty whisky bottle is the nearest approach to it, and is sadly suggestive of departed spirits. Few people are aware that the crow is a song bird as it is only in the depths of the forest they can be heard to perfection. Their notes are very few but are the sweetest and most mellow toned I have ever heard a bird produce.”
Guest Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Kaka and Blogger, David Farrar
The Kaka should be the Native Bird of the Year. The kaka was named after the sounds it makes as an alarm. It is our native mountain parrot and is the best New Zealand traditions is a loud, noisy and dexterous bird.
Kaka, Jordan Kappelly
As most New Zealanders are, the Kaka is a gregarious and social bird. They like to hang out in groups, and will even rail around a wounded comrade - often putting themselves at great risk.
Guest Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Fantail & Broadcaster, Kim Hill
Photo: Craig McKenzie
Such good company, the fantail! I realise it’s shamefully anthropomorphic, but they always make me feel as if they’re delighted to see me and have a chat, especially when I’m on my own in the bush.
Yes yes, I am aware that they’re just chasing the insects that get stirred up by my footsteps, but that doesn’t diminish their charm. Having a chat, having a feed, it’s all very sociable. Nothing wrong with self-interest if it gives others pleasure at the same time, I reckon. I’m sorry for the pain of the insects, of course, but it’s the great cycle of life….which is easy for me to say at the top of the food chain but never mind.
Guest blogger: Co-Campaign Manager for the Kea, Mandy Herrick
Ahem, before you go off and vote for, the best bird in the world - our lovely, conniving, uber intelligent kea - I’d like to acknowledge the good people at the Natural History Unit who provided the footage for this video; illustrator extraordinaire, Kieran Rynhart who penned the pictures, final-cut pro guru Davey Boy and sound recordist Phil Yule. Now go vote! http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/poll
Guest Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Masked Lapwing & Field Officer for Forest & Bird, Aalbert Rebergen
Masked Lapwing, Photo: B Donald
I’m not surprised that the spur-winged plover, or better: “masked lapwing” as it is called in Australia and the rest of the world, receives little mention in the ‘polls’ or receives praises from our VIPs.
Some may think that it’s not even a native and can’t qualify for “bird of the year”. But it is as much a New Zealand native bird as the welcome swallow, pied stilt, silvereye, white-faced heron (good on you Steve Braunias!) and several others.
It’s just an amazing bird and boy do kiwis hate them. People hate their “awful noise”; they can’t stand the fact that they defend their chicks vigorously against harriers and possibly magpies. Or that they are SO successful, SO Australian maybe……?
Guest blogger: Campaign Manager for the Ruru, Stephen Clark
Morepork, Photo: Chris Turner
In a year when we remember it was 70 years since we declared war on Germany at the start of the Second World War, it seems a good choice to choose a bird that is still having trouble with Germans. In this case the German Owl, and the New Zealander (Ruru) is loosing its battle for habitat on our own shores.
It would be a pity to see New Zealand’s only remaining native owl go the way of its cousin, the laughing owl. Especially when these small birds are skilled, stealthy fliers, able hunters and intelligent I have personally seen one roost at night on a lamp post just below the street light so it could feed on anything that was drawn to the light at night.
Guest blogger: Campaign Manager for the Kingfisher, Stephanie Gray.
If I were to paint our Sacred Kingfisher in caricature, I’d give him a little leather jacket in midnight-blue.
The Kingfisher, Craig McKenzie
For he is a thug. A stunning little predator. A handsome, hard-headed, supremely successful species that excels at pulverising the small prey he swoops upon.
Skinks, silvereyes and dragon-flies are all flung against fence posts and dashed on river rocks until every bone is broken and they can then be swallowed whole.
The Sacred Kingfisher, Kotare, relishes this regal diet. He is not (surprisingly) not that fussed with fish but will raid your goldfish pond when wild food is scarce. For his appetite, and for love of the kingfishers in my seaside neighbourhood, I nominate the Kotare as Bird of the Year.
