Wild Bird Wednesday 644 - Red-Crowned Parakeet

The Red-Crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) is a locally common New Zealand endemic species. This species is also known as Red-fronted parakeet and by its Māori name of Kākāriki.

These pictures were taken on Stewart Island, and on the predator-free sanctuary island of Tiritiri Matangi, which is an hours boat ride from central Auckland.  (If you ever visit NZ, I can recommend a trip to Tiritiri Matangi.)

This species often feeds low down in trees or on the ground.  The bird on the ground in these pictures was feeding on a bank by the side of a path, so we had excellent views.

These birds are between 25-28 cm long and weigh no more than 80 grams.

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Wild Bird Wednesday 643

The New Zealand Kākā (Nestor meridionalis) or just Kākā is large forest dwelling parrot that is endemic to New Zealand.  It can be found on North, South and Stewart Island, where it lives in native forests, predator free islands and a number of newly established predator-free sanctuaries.

An example of the predator-free sanctuaries is Zealandia in Wellington.  This sanctuary is based around an old reservoir that once provided drinking water to the city of Wellington.  It is now ring-fenced with a predator-proof fence and the area inside the fence is being regenerated as native forest.  The Kākā in this sanctuary are free flying - and are in fact colonising the surrounding areas outside of the sanctuary.

Most of the pictures here are actually of fully wild birds from South and Stewart Island. 

The Kākā is about 45 cm (18 in) in length and weighs between 390 to 560 g (14 to 20 oz).  The Kākā nests from October to June in cavities in hollow trees, and produces 4 eggs, which normally leads to the fledging of just two young parrots.

Like most (maybe all?) parrots this species is intelligent, and great fun to watch. 

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Hope all is well.  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 642 - Snowy Albatross / Wandering Albatross

More from my recent trips out to sea from Tasmania this week,

There are a group of Albatross species that are broadly known as The Great Albatrosses. The Great Albatrosses are divided into two species complexes, the 'Wandering and Amsterdam Albatrosses', and the 'Royal Albatrosses'. The splitting of the great albatrosses into six or seven species has been accepted by most, though not all, authorities.

I have to say that the ability of some people to be able to split these species in the field is nothing short of remarkable - although it has to said that readily available images on the back of a camera are of great help.

This week's WBW bird is a Diomedea exulans - which is also know as the Snowy Albatross, the White-Winged Albatross and the Wandering Albatross.

The Snowy Albatross has the longest wingspan of any living bird, reaching upwards of 3.5 m (11 ft), and adults can weigh from 5.9 to 12.7 kg (13 to 28 lb).  They are by any standard a large and impressive bird.  And as they glide in towards the boat - and occasionally settle on the water near it - they are an utter joy to watch.

These birds breed on a small number of sub-antarctic islands, but they can be seen anywhere in the southern oceans that surround Antartica.  By any stretch of the imagination that's a lot water to call home.

I may have said it before and I'll probably say it again, but if you get the chance to see any albatross - take it.

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Wild Bird Wednesday 641 - Salvin's Albatross

I was lucky enough to go out on another couple of pelagic birding trips a week ago.  As per usual for me, these went out from Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania.

This is a Salvin's Albatross (Thalassarche salvini) that we saw in the first trip of the weekend.  This species is part of the Shy Albatross group of birds.  It can be separated from Shy Albatross (Thalassarche cauta) by its pale grey head with a white forehead, its white underwings and the pale or olive-grey bit with a dark tip.

In the field (or on the ocean in this case) the grey head was very noticeable and this was the feature that first alerted us to the birds presence as it flew past.  Somewhat unusually (so I am told) the bird stayed around the boat for a while, rather than just doing a fly past.

This is a Southern Ocean species that breeds on some of New Zealand sub-antarctic islands. 

In some of these picture you can see the bird interacting with a Shy Albatross. 

As ever, to join on with WBW click on the link below.  Hope all is well.  SM

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