The Tui is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand. It is one of the largest members of the diverse honeyeater family. Nectar is the normal diet but fruit and insects are frequently eaten, and pollen and seeds more occasionally.
Tuis prefer broadleaf forests below 1500 metres. but will tolerate quite small remnant patches, regrowth, exotic plantations and well-vegetated suburbs.
The Huia was the largest species of New Zealand wattlebird, endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. Its extinction in the early 20th century. The two major cause of extinction was overhunting to procure Huia skins for mounted specimens and the widespread deforestation of the lowlands of the North Island by European settlers. Huia were primarily found in broadleaf-podocarp forests where there was a dense understorey, with the lost of ancient, ecologically complex primary forests, they were unable to survive in regenerating secondary forests.
Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, their are the only bird to have nostrils at the end of their very long bill and by far the smallest living ratites.
There are two species of Kiwi’s in New Zealand, the Brown Kiwi and the Spotted Kiwi. Within these two species are six varieties of Kiwi: Little Spotted Kiwi, North Island Brown Kiwi, Great Spotted Kiwi, Okarita Brown, Stewart island Brown, Haast Brown
Kōkako are endangered forest birds which are endemic to New Zealand. There are two sub-species of Kōkako, the North Island Kōkako and the South Island Kōkako. Kōkako declines were undoubtedly caused by forest clearance, and the introduction of predators.
In Māori myth, it was the Kōkako that gave Maui water as he fought the sun. The kōkako filled its wattles with water and brought it to Maui. His thirst quenched, Maui rewarded the kōkako by making its legs long and slender, enabling the bird to bound through the forest with ease in search of food.
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