Life is Good: New Zealand is for the birds

New Zealand originally had no mammals (except for a couple bats), so it has an amazing bird life. Many of these birds are flightless. Of course, it was better before they introduced mammals like rabbits, stouts, ferrets, dogs, cats, and deer that ate a lot of the birds (especially the flightless ones), but it’s still quite an amazing diversity. Before we went, Adam bought me a book of New Zealand birds and it was really helpful. We wouldn’t have enjoyed them half as much without it. Thanks to Mom and Dad too for the binoculars that served us well. Here’s a list of the birds we are sure we saw, in the approximate order we saw them. The pictures are not ours, because we don’t have a cool zoom lens to actually get good pictures. It should be noted that we also believe we heard a kiwi (New Zealand's national icon) and a kaka, both of which are rare.

• Magpie (introduced; these were everywhere, especially in pastures)

• Chaffinch

• Yellow-eye penguin (this is one of the rarest penguins)

• Little blue penguin (probably my favorite)

• Fantail (these were really cute – they fly with their large tails up in order to catch insects)

• Wood pigeon (NZ’s only native pigeon)

• Harrier
• Goldfinch (not the same as ours)
• Song thrush

• Bell bird

• King shag

• Black swan (they introduced these for hunting, but turns out they don’t taste good)

• Paradise shelduck

• Pukeko (kind of like a chicken – very cute)

• Myna (common, sort of like our crows)

• Australian Coot

• White-faced heron
• Welcome swallow
• Silvereye
• Yellowhammer
• Blackbird
• Australian gannet
• Little black shag (also called a cormorant)

• Grey teal
• California quail
• Variable oystercatcher

• Pied stilt
• Red- and black-billed gulls
• Black fronted tern
• New Zealand pipit

• Skylark (they sing like crazy while hovering in the air until they run out of breath and then they fall)
• Bush robin
• Redpoll
• Eastern rosella (not native, but still very cool)