NZ photos round 1: BIRDS

[rah_bop]

During my New Zealand adventure a few weeks ago, I took about 3,000 photos. Sorting and resizing them all is getting crazy, so I'm going to cut them into two batches: birds, and everything else.

Today I am posting BIRD PICTURES. Behind the cut are 85 pictures and 3 videos. It's at least 22mb, so please be patient as they load. If you are on a low

Comments

[rah_bop]

Most of them I took with a Canon 20D (DSLR) and a 400mm lens, which is about as long as my forearm. A couple of them were taken with a Canon Powershot S5 IS, which is a little point-and-shoot kinda thing that I can take everywhere with me.

[shadsdf]

PENGUIIIIIIIIIIINSSS EEEEEEEEEH oh my gosh do i ever want to go to NZ now.

the gannets there are identical to the gannets that have a huuuge colony about two hours from my place ( this place ) !!

the big stompy rails are all too precious~

[rah_bop]

Well, they are almost identical! The Austrailasian gannets have black secondaries and tail feathers, but on the northern gannets (where you live) both are white. I don't know if they have overlapping ranges. I kind of suspect they don't but I have no proof.

Anyway, I'm super jealous that you have gannets so close to you! I'd be visiting them all the time if there were gannets here. Squeeeeee! ♥

[loonwings]

[dies of overbird]

[mav_fan]

As am I!!!

[regalis]

... yes, crappy, crappy photos IF YOU ORDINARILY SHOOT FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WTF.

ALSO YOU SAW WILD TAKAHE. For this, I must now hate you D:

[aerinl]

I'm pretty sure most of the wild kokako populations are up around the north island. I do believe they just got reintroduced to the Waitakeres (which is the range about 30mins from our house). I'm insanely jealous that you got to see a kiwi in the wild though.
The robins are fantastic, they're almost the complete opposites from the tomtits, which are incredibly flighty.
The takahe and pukeko next to each other is a very nice comparison. Also that quite a nice shot of the cuckoo, as I've only seen one fleetingly (they don't come up to Auckland, nor the bellbirds).
The wekas are cheeky little buggers.
Also, I disagree about your stitchbird hypothesis, given that the Maori name is hihi (hee-hee) :D

Tui's are gorgeous, we have a pair that nest in the backyard in a big karaka tree. Simply gorgeous.

[rah_bop]

We went to Tiritiri Matangi just because you suggested it, and it was awesoooooome. Thank you so much for the recommendation! There are 20 kokako on Tiri but they eluded us the whole day. 8( There were a lot of birds I wanted pictures of but never did (really common things like the magpies, spur-winged plovers and especially the KEAS) so it just means we'll have to come back.

We also drove all day once to see the godwits and when we got there, they were all out feeding and we didn't see a single one. then we had to leave. Bad luck!

The only place we saw tomtits were way out in the sticks on Stewart Island. They weren't too shy there. They'd hang out on a branch and oogle us for a bit. I managed to get a bunch of tomtit pictures but it's just their butts, so I didn't post them.

Anyway, thanks again for Tiri! <3

[aerinl]

Magpies usually hang out on farmland or around the suburbs. The spurs tend to hang out on farmland also. Evil evil little things they are XD

[rah_bop]

Yeah, I know. we SAW plenty of them, but I was never able to get any pictures.