Rock, bob and roll
Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Rock-Wren, Craig McKenzie
Like its cousin the rifleman, the rock wren has a plucky personality that defies its golf-ball like size. It’s like the jack-russell of birds.
It’s a curious design for a bird. It’s got two over-sized feet, a rotund body and no tail.
This alpine dwelling bird is so fast-moving, that mountaineers and trampers must be quick to spot it as it ducks, curtseys, hops and flits across mountain screes, shingle faces and peat slopes.
If you’re rock-like as you munch on your sandwich, you maybe fortunate enough to share a rock with them. They’ll magically appear – wing-waving and bobbing like a prize boxer. Gorgeous.
This bobbing motion is one of its signature moves. So if you meet a small, green mountain bird, and it starts a-bobbing then bingo you’re looking at a rock wren.
As well as being a prize dancer, this bird is our only true alpine tweeter. Even the bird everyone loves to hate – our snow parrot, the kea – doesn’t live there the whole time.
Why they chose to live in these mountain climes is something of a mystery. Maybe they got ridiculed for their big feet so they chose a place where they could live in peace?
Sadly, this peace has been shattered by the arrival of predators so their numbers are declining and populations becoming fragmented.
A good result in this poll will be to raise awareness of this bolshy little bird. It may even raise their self esteem to a level that’ll let them shake off their self-consciousness and descend a little from their alpine climes, so that the masses can enjoy their company.
