The scientific name of this little guy is Petroica macrocephala, and tomtits do indeed have big heads (macro = big + cephala = head) attached to their tiny bodies. Tomtits feed on insects in native and exotic forests and subspecies are found throughout the country. This is a South Island tomtit (Petroica macrocephala macrocephala), photographed [...]
Places
This clear blue beauty is Lake Rotoiti, in the Nelson Lakes National Park. Lake Rotoiti was carved out by a glacier that has long since disappeared. This photo was taken from the Lakeside track that runs along the lake’s western side.
This is the New Zealand pipit/ pīhoihoi (Anthus novaeseelandiae), which is a bit smaller than a song thrush, about 16-19 cm long compared to the thrush’s 20-24 cm. Pipits belong to a family of birds called wagtails, because they kind of wag their tails as they walk. Numbers in New Zealand are over 100,000 but [...]
Most of the common names for Zosterops lateralis are based on its most striking feature: the rings around the eyes of the adults. Silvereye, wax-eye, white-eye. Even its genus name, Zosterops, refers to the eye ring: it means “eye girdle”. Looking beyond the bright eye ring, though, the silvereye has an astonishing array of striking [...]
This is a juvenile pied stilt/poaka (Himantopus himantopus leucocephalus). The black neck and back of the head of the adult develops as the bird matures, but the soft colours of the juvenile are rather endearing, in a sleeping-without-taking-your-mascara-off kind of way.
Whisky Falls lies just off the Lakeside track that goes up the western side of Lake Rotoiti, in the Nelson Lakes National Park. Whisky Falls is 40 metres high and in the 1880s, legend has it, was the site of a whisky still.
The white-fronted tern/tara (Sterna striata) is often seen in large flocks along the New Zealand coastline. Their relationship with fish is complicated: the white-fronted tern is also known as the kahawai bird, from its habit of flocking over shoals of kawahai. It’s not the kahawai, they’re interested in, though, because terns are after the smaller [...]
Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park is fed by the Travers River, which runs through beech forest and tussock land. At the top of the lake not far from the river mouth, two huts flank either side of the point where the river enters the lake. This one is on the eastern side [...]
Poaka/pied stilts (Himantopus himantopus) are found in warmer parts of the world and are called black-winged stilts outside of New Zealand. The New Zealand subspecies first established populations here in the 1880s; it is also found throughout Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. They seem to like it here and cope okay with our introduced [...]
This is the view of the hills looking towards Richmond from one of the many bays that lie between Mapua and Richmond. The peaky peak in the distance is Mt Richmond and it’s quite striking, as are the jagged bits of mountain to the left of it. They’re visible on the skyline driving southeast from [...]
