"Endemic New Zealand birds"

Native birds have been around New Zealand for over 700 years. One of the native birds represents the people of New Zealand, which is the Kiwi and it means “hidden bird”. There are other native birds that represents other special meanings, such as Kea, Ruru, and the Haast Eagle.

Kea is the smartest bird in the world. It is smart as a toddler, it could open your bag and it would try to steal things. The keas have wonderful feathers, including reddish-orange in their underside on their wings and the tail. The kea mainly nest within native forest. Their habitat includes all types of native forest, Sub-alpine scrub, Tussock and herb-field.The Keas population is decreasing but we could help them by having breeding programs like at WillowBank. 

Ruru is one of a kind, it is also known as the Morepork, it is the only surviving native owl in New Zealand. Morepork is Nocturnal so it only hunts at night and mostly sleep day. Morepork eat insects, small mammals and birds. Ruru is commonly found in rainforest to desserts. They have acute hearing, are sensitive to light and almost soundless in flight.

Haast Eagle are one of the only predators before humans came. This species was known as the largest eagle to have existed. Haast Eagle size is massive, this explains how it could weigh more than 230 Kg. The diet of this eagle is mostly the also extinct flightless Moa. The cause of this Species was human settlers in New Zealand. Eventually hunting them to extinction by around 1400. The loss of its primary prey caused the Haast's eagle to become extinct at about the same time.

Overall, we should protect the ones who are still surviving. Such as Weka, Kiwi, Kea, Grey Duck and many more. We should help the breeding programmes, who are relatively to WillowBank. 

These are some pictures from our trip.