For those of us that love the outdoors but spend the better part of our weekday ensconced in an air-conditioned building, the weekend represents a vital chance to get our nature fix. This invariably means different things to different people but for me it signifies precious hours which can be used to get outside exploring […]
On September 9, birdwatchers across the world will head to their local beach to count shorebirds for the third annual Global Shorebird Count. The Global Shorebird Counting Program is a key part of World Shorebirds Day, which aims to raise awareness for shorebirds. It highlights the importance of regular bird monitoring as a core way to protect […]
In Northland, many great native forests and their wildlife are collapsing. When the sun goes down, thousands of possums relentlessly consume the forest canopy, slowly killing ancient forest giants like tōtara, pūriri, pōhutukawa and northern rātā. Rats come out to consume our native birds, insects and lizards. Dean Baigent-Mercer takes us on a tour of Northland’s forgotten […]
May has been a fantastic month for the volunteers at Ark in the Park, Forest & Bird’s 2100 hectare open sanctuary in the Waitakeres. 100 pōpokotea (whiteheads) and 10 kōkako were translocated to the Ark, helping to restore our dawn chorus as John Staniland, one of the project’s founders, explains. Last week while doing my monthly trapping […]
Recently, I was lucky enough to be invited on a trip to the West Coast. On arriving at a small settlement we noticed a couple of keas, one on the chimney of a nearby house and its mate in a nearby beech tree. The two of them, both juvenile birds, one to two years old, […]
By Hauraki Island Branch member, Rob Brennan. A good news story from the Hauraki branch of Forest & Bird – kākā are breeding on Waiheke Island! Not only that, but they have chosen Onetangi Reserve, a 56 hectare reserve that Forest & Bird has owned and been looking after since the early 1960’s, to make their nest. […]
Internationally important wetlands are being polluted in the Waikato, as Al Fleming, Forest & Bird’s Central North Island Regional Manager, explains. New Zealand’s wetlands can be described as the “lungs” of land and water and support a greater diversity of native birds, fish, invertebrates and plants than most other habitats. But the Waikato River’s lungs, which are made up of […]
Growing up in Wellington, I often saw our native birds in their element. Tūī swooped across the front yard, kererū perched precariously in the kōwhai trees and we were even treated to the kārearea/NZ falcon on rare occasions. Naturally I took an interest in our native birds and their curious ways. I spent a lot of time […]
It’s nearly that time of year again! Forest & Bird’s annual Bird of the Year competition will kick off on October the 5th, so get ready to vote for your favourite bird. Over 50 birds will fight it out to be crowned our Bird of the Year. This year it’s about more than glory as […]