New Zealand 12 - Birds of New Zealand

One of our favorite things to do is to bird-watch. John's Dad spent a lot of time teaching him how to identify various birds. So everywhere we go, we are always on the lookout for native birds. So we will start with our favorite bird in New Zealand - the Tui. The Tui has two vocal boxes, and makes a call that sounds like a beautiful bird call combined with a rusty gate hinge. They were everywhere we went in New Zealand and we loved them. If you would like to hear Tuis and other New Zealand bird sounds, you can go here. Tuis are similar to Myna birds and can be taught to speak. Here is a website where you can hear a Tui sing, whistle, and speak.


Below is a picture of a non-tropical parrot, the Kea. It is a very large bird, and can be very destructive. They are really curious and loved to get onto cars and chew off the wiper blades and the rubber moldings around windshields and windows.

Below is the Bellbird, which is another honeyeater, like the Tui.

On the hike to Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula, we saw this barn swallow building a new nest.

The Australian Magpie.

We also saw California quails around out bach on the Coromandel Peninsula. Not sure how they got from California to New Zealand!

The Chaffinch is a beautiful little bird that we saw in all of the thermal spring areas. Sometimes, they were standing in steaming water, oblivious to the heat and steam vapors.

New Zealand's version of the Goldfinch is beautiful, with the red on their heads.

The Little Shag looks like a small cormorant, and we saw them in all of the lakes and on the coast on the Abel Tasman Track.

The Pied Stilt, also seen mostly in the thermal vent areas.

The female Paradise Shelduck.

The male Paradise Shelduck.

Another view of the male Paradise Shelduck at Mirror Lakes.

We hope you have enjoyed our pictures from New Zealand. It was a great trip and it's been fun re-living it when we were putting these blog posts together.

Birds and Ducks at Ponds near TriQuint

It's been a while since I posted anything. I'll try to be more active soon and finish up the New Zealand photos. In the meantime, here are some local photos I have been taking. My company is located in a very nice park, and I take my camera so I can take pictures during lunch. There's quite a few small ponds, which have some great ducks and other wildlife around. This first picture was taken last winter.

This picture was taken today (01-Dec-2009) when a bunch of honkers flew in and landed. I was trying to get a "flyout" shot, but they all took off before I got ready.

Male Mallard

A Green-winged Teal

Buffleheads (male in front)

Wood Ducks (males are the bright colored ones)

A Kestrel hunting in the trees nearby

A Hooded Merganser last winter

It's a great place to get some quick exercise, and there's no telling what types of wildlife you will see.

I hope you enjoy the photos!