Tasman Every Day

On a trip around Awaroa Inlet on the Abel Tasman Coast Track, this swamp harrier/kāhu (Circus approximans) was cruising along the shore, grazing the tops of ferns, looking for prey. Harriers vary quite a bit in colour, becoming lighter as they grow older.

The yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) was introduced to New Zealand in the late 1800s and has spread throughout the country. They feed on seeds and are especially fond of grass seeds, so they like open country where grass seeds abound: paddocks and low scrub. Because grass seeds are their preferred diet, they don’t appear to compete with any native species. This yellowhammer was photographed at the Kumaras, at the top end of the Motueka sandspit, where there’s a fair bit of grass seed for them to feast upon. Another name for the yellowhammer is the yellow bunting, where a bunting refers to a seed-eating finch-like bird. The name yellowhammer is thought to come from the German word for bunting, ammer. Yellow-ammer becomes yellowhammer, so nothing to do with hardware or home maintenance.

Fantails occur all around New Zealand and four subspecies are recognised. The South Island fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa fuliginosa) is the subspecies found, well, in the South Island. There’s also a North Island subspecies (R. f. placabilis), a Chatham Island subspecies (R. f. penita) and an extinct Lord Howe Island subspecies (R. f. cervina). The fantail in this photo is a black morph of the South Island fantail. About one in 20 South Island fantails is a black morph. The black morph occurs in the North Island, but is very rare. Black morphs have very little white on them, and no white eyebrows, so can never be mistaken for angry ewoks.

Fantails are territorial during the breeding season, so when you’re in the bush and fantails come visiting, they’re checking you out to make sure you’re not trying to take over their territory. And they’re not afraid to tell you off. They look like angry ewoks.

The New Zealand fantail is very similar to Australia’s grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa), and the grey fantail has been considered to be Rhipidura fuliginosa (the New Zealand species) in the past. Fantails are about 16 cm long, and half of this is their tail, the size of which becomes apparent when they spread out their tail feathers. Fantails will flick their tails while looking for food; it may be that the sudden appearance of lots of tail feathers startles prey into moving, thereby meeting their doom.

Fantails have coped well with human settlement. They like native bush (of course), but loss of habitat hasn’t affected the fantail as much as it has other New Zealand species, as fantails also like exotic forest, farmland, parks and gardens. They’re found from sea level to snowline, pretty much anywhere where insects can be found. Introduced predators are a problem for fantails, but unlike a lot of New Zealand’s native birds, fantails produce a lot of babies. This means that at least some fantail chicks will avoid predators long enough to reach adulthood and breed.

These guys are the welcoming committee of the New Zealand bush, turning this way and that, giving their loud ‘cheet cheet’ calls, showing off their tails, all the while continuing to hunt for the insects that make up the bulk of their diet. The fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa) has over a dozen names in Maori, many of which relate to its restlessness. The most well-known Maori name is pīwakawaka. Fantails build cupped nests from moss, hair, dried grass and cobwebs, and they anchor them in the forks of trees. They’ll have two or more clutches over the breeding season, depending on the weather. We’ve had a long, warm summer this year in the Tasman District, and there seem to be a lot of fantails around. The day this photo was taken in the Ellis River Valley, the photographer was regularly mobbed by, um, mobs of fantails. (Actually, the collective term for groups of fantails is said by one website to be “a spread”.)

Hop plants (Humulus lupulus) can be seen throughout the Motueka area in spring and summer, strung onto overhead wires. The hop bines are encouraged to grow along the wires and in late summer, the flowers of the female plants are harvested. No, that “bine” isn’t a typo, the term is used for vines that sends their shoots climbing over a support in a helical fashion, as opposed to the tendril/sucker system used by plain old “vines”. There are over 100 varieties of hops grown around the world, with 20 of those grown in New Zealand. Plant and Food Research works with industry to develop new varieties. The flowers in this photo are one of the NZ-developed varieties, Nelson Sauvin, which was released in 2000. It has a strong, complex flavour profile that requires considerable skill to keep its aromatic oils from overwhelming the palate. It’s a popular, versatile variety often used for IPA- and APA-style hoppy beers.

The white-fronted tern (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 fish that are found along with kahawai. The name “white-fronted” refers to the white stripe that separates its black cap from its bill. Otherwise, the bird is a soft grey on top with white undersides. The Latin name, Sterna striata, refers to… nothing at all to do with the adult bird. Juvenile white-fronted terns have broken speckle-stripes on their backs, and it is this striation that lent itself to the tern’s species name.