Stoked with this one! We had just started driving out of Awarua Bay on our second and final day searching for New Zealand Dotterels with no luck. We decided to stop on the drive back as there were quite a few birds around, and there happened to be two SNZD feeding together!
Native species to the island.
This hybrid doesn't seem to exist on inat. The female is pure Pateke, but the male has several mallard traits such as a grey tail, and a particularly green head.
Seen at Hutton's Shearwater colony at the head of the Kowhai River Seaward Kaikoura Ranges. Photos taken near the Hutton's Shearwater research hut.
First bird for Christchurch and third for Canterbury!
One of two, video here https://youtu.be/tuixVO2uApw
There were countless dead Gannets on the cliff, most of them adults. I asked a ranger what might have killed these birds, and he said they had starved to death. Fishing grounds are further and further away with less and less fish, and so the Gannet population here is nearing collapse. He said by comparison to 2017, the colony for this time of the year is at 20%. He then told me he was deeply concerned about Cyclone Gabrielle's impact. At this point I hadn't yet realized what was coming other than a few days of rain and stiff winds, and so I heeded his advise, and did what everybody else was doing: Stock up with emergency supplies, and get prepared.
Very dark juvenile fantail on roadside verge amongst mahoe, kanuka and dense exotic trees. Normally see usual coloured fantails here too. This is not my photo but this is very similar to what I saw
Surprise!
Not terribly wary, but not overly friendly either.
Interestingly, there was a sighting of a male here not long before:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/flyingkiwigirl/15699750462
Addendum: I wrote the DOC office and they said that this is the same male but in eclipse plumage (which would explain the pinkish beak in my photos).
Single bird a few hundred metres upstream in the branch from which the track from the riverbed to Top Maropea hut begins. Reluctant to fly — scrabbled from its hiding place behind a large boulder and stood watching us for several minutes in the rain until finally flying upstream.
This was an unusual and weird day as I recall, seeing this animal so far off course...
Juvenile Saddleback on Adele island only bird seen that day but there are probably around 50-60 on the island
Juvenile
Female on Rakiura Track, around a hundred metres below the old saw mill between North Arm and Port William Huts
Updated location 3 October. It was near Takhini hot springs not Fort Selkirk
Looking for identification
In love with these images!
So happy that I finally have decent images of my own of these birds!
Dead on sandy beach