The Māori name of the New Zealand scaup (Aythya novaeseelandiae) is pāpango, which means kinda black in colour. And from a distance, the scaup certainly appears to be brown/black, but up close they do the common bird trick of actually being a lot of different colours. They’re not just brown and black, but also green, [...]
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Black-billed gulls (Larus bulleri) have the most amazing white eyes ringed in what look to me like tiny stitches crocheted in scarlet wool. Then there’s the crisp, smooth white of the head and the deep black of its bill… the black-billed gull is a beautiful bird.
Gulls are often thought of as seabirds, but the black-billed gull (Larus bulleri) is more likely to be found around freshwater: rivers, lakes, marshes, pastures. They breed on the gravel beds of braided rivers, which provide them with a clear space to nest on and easy access to a reliable food source. In 2016, a [...]
Anklets are trending in 2018! Especially among New Zealand’s more threatened bird species. Black-billed gulls (Larus bulleri) have been banded as part of studies trying to determine how many chicks fledge each season, how many survive to breed in subsequent seasons and where they spend their winters. Birds are given two bands, a metal band with [...]
If you think this black-billed gull (Larus bulleri) isn’t looking too impressed, you try being the most threatened gull species in the world. The black-billed gull is very similar in looks to the much more common (but also declining) red-billed gulls (Larus novaehollandiae) often found around the coast. The black-billed gull is a more slender bird, [...]
On one hand, you have New Zealand’s most common coastal gull, the red-billed gull. On the other hand, you have this guy, the black-billed gull (Larus bulleri), which is not just New Zealand’s most threatened gull species, but the world’s most threatened. Their numbers are still okay, but the rate of decline is a serious [...]
Have you ever fallen into that black hole that is watching owl videos on YouTube? No? Never mind… Following all the little bird introductions of the late 1800s, it was time to bring in the little owl to control them. Between 1906 and 1920, around 200 little owls (Athene noctua) were released by the Otago [...]
Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris vulgaris) were first released by the Nelson Acclimatisation Society in 1862, and only around a thousand were brought in to the country altogether. They’ve spread just about everywhere, except dense forests and mountains. Their introduction has been a success, from a farming point of view, as they were brought in to control [...]
The European greenfinch (Chloris chloris) was among the wave of birds introduced to New Zealand in the 1860s. They’re known for their song in some parts of the world and are caught and kept as songbirds. Possibly that’s the reason they were brought to New Zealand, because settlers wanted to hear familiar songbirds. By the [...]
The male chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs gengleri) sports this lovely silver aviator cap year round, but his colours get really intense in spring. Chaffinches were among the 130 bird species introduced to New Zealand following European settlement, and this seems to have been one of the less harmful introductions. They do some damage to fruits and [...]
