Looks like the Southern Cross over some mountains. The sky is still mostly dark, but dawn is coming.

Here's an average South Island robin/toutouwai shot. It's standing on some moss.

After walking in the shade for a while, we cross into the sun. There's a line of illuminated flats in the middle distance.

A dog waits for its person in the truck. The person is running some diggers at Muddy Creek.

The shuttle from Muddy Creek is at 2:30PM and it's a 6-8 hour walk from Shelter Rock Hut, so we left pretty early. Maybe the first part would have been more scenic if there had been more light. #BirdsNZ

A kea standing on a picnic table.

Three keas on the sign indicating the Cascade Saddle Route.

Apparently these kea are playing. One kea is standing, while the other one next to it is rolling over in the grass.

Here we have a kea on the highest point of Aspiring Hut along with a pair of bicycles underneath a blue tarp (as if that'll keep the kea off.)

OK, more kea content from Aspiring Hut.

Kea are notorious for eating rubber. They were thinking about eating the bicycles that were parked at the hut.

I also have a picture of a kea trying to steal my inReach, which is posted in my gallery, but not part of the […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A kea shows off its actually colourful plumage (olive green, blue, black, orange) as it flaps its wings.

A kea just sitting there on the ground.

Kea at the hut is perched on a sill above a "do not feed the kea" sign. It is eating the wooden handrail.

OK, not kea. Here are some small olive and white birds in a tree.

There were so many kea! Haven't seen quite so many before. As I posted before, also takahē. Apart from that, here are some silvereye/tauhou. There were one or two fantail/pīwakawaka and South Island robin/toutouwai, but I didn't get good pictures of them […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

The view at Cascade Saddle itself: the ground is mostly flat sloped upwards left-to-right with golden grass on it. There is a track visible in the middle of the picture, with cliffs to the right of the track. There is a person standing on the track near the cliff.

A takahē in the wild, coming for its evening stroll to Shelter Rock Hut. It has walked out from the long grass and is in short grass. It is various shades of purple, green, and blue, with red feet (banded white and red) and a red beak.

A small waterfall taken at slow shutter speed relatively early in the day. Next to the waterfall there are various plants.

On the last day of the walk, we were in the boggy flats surrounded by snow-covered peaks like this one. There is a small cloud near the biggest peak in the picture.

We went from Raspberry Creek to Aspiring Hut and then over the Cascade Saddle to Dart Hut, finishing with the Rees Track and seeing takahē. There are a couple of pictures I've posted before. #SouthernAlps #BirdsNZ

A scaup swimming on Lake Wānaka, mostly black, but with brown-tinged wings.

One of the platforms for grebes is mostly occupied by a paradise shelduck, but there is also for some reason a coot chick on the edge of the platform. There were adult coots around too.

A different scaup with a fuzzy scaupling following it.

This time there are two keas on the picnic table looking for trouble.

From Lake Wānaka and also around the Aspiring Hut (which had heaps of kea). #BirdsNZ #Birds

Golden Hour on Mont Blanc: a dome-shaped snow covered summit, with various rocky bits of mountains, under a blue sky.

Above a "do not feed the kea" sign, a kea chews away at the wooden bannister.

Me, in front of many pink cherry blossoms, and some green leaves.

A repost of grebe number 8 on a nest in front of a number 8 sign.

I had a little bit of time for pictures in February. Not much, but more than in January, and about one-third of December's output. #Birds #BirdsNZ #Alps

https://patricklam.ca/post/20260301-february-photos/

Long grasses on the left, short grasses on the right. A plump indigo, olive, and green bird with a short red beak comes out onto the short grasses.

A wild takahē appears! #BirdsNZ #Birds

A puteketeke/grebe (white chest, orange cheek, stylist crest) sits on top of a nest of branches on dock #8.

A pūtangitangi/paradise shelduck naps on a platform. Some fluffy chick (probably not his) is on the corner of the platform. No one seems interested in the chick.

A parent scaup (brown wings, chestnut underside) and its scaupling swimming along and occasionally diving.

Waiting in Wānaka for a shuttle to Raspberry Creek and checking in on the puteketeke/grebes and other birds. #BirdsNZ #Birds

A floofy duckling swimming near a small cascade.

Floofy ducklings (yellow, brown) in the grass in front of a brick wall.

This must be a juvenile duck; its head is mostly grey but has a tinge of green on it.

Finally, some ducklings from last month. /fin #BirdsNZ

This bird has a black head and wings and slightly yellow chest. It is perched on a small mossy stump.

Weka steal food. This one is standing on a concrete pad, looking brown and black with some grey markings on its head. The feet are kind of chicken like.

This mama pūtangitangi/paradise shelduck has a bunch of juveniles following it. It's swimming in the water and flapping its wings. It has a white head and white, green, and black wings, with a chestnut brown chest.

The tūī is perched on a stump, sitting there being turquoise and black, with the tuft at its neck.

Not done wrapping up! Here are some birds endemic to NZ: a ngirungiru/tomtit, a weka, pūtangitangi/paradise shelduck, and a tūī (which I've posted before). #BirdsNZ

A kakaruai / South Island Robin seen heading up to Cascade Saddle. It is a small brown bird with a whitish chest and black eye, perched on a branch, in a forest.

Canadian content: a juvenile Olympic Gull in Vancouver is begging for food from its parent. Both are on paving stones. The juvenile is mostly grey, while the parent has a white chest, grey wings, and a yellow beak. The parent's mouth is half open.

The hard-to-see but easy to hear riroriro/grey warbler is a small grey bird. Here it is on a branch, which partially obscures it. There are a couple of other branches in the picture.

A pepe pōuri / black mountain ringlet was flying around on the rocks on a sunny but windy day in Nelson Lakes National Park last December. It's mostly dark brown/black, but has black-and-white antennae and some white circles surrounded by larger black circles on its wings.

Here's some birds and other flying creatures (pepe pōuri / black mountain ringlet). #Birds #BirdsNZ #butterfly

A green-blue tūī perched on a stump, in profile. Its white neck tuft is prominent.

A pōhutukawa tree (green) with a huge clump of red blossoms taking up much of the frame. This picture was not taken today, but instead on a day without clouds.

Outside my window: tūī and pōhutukawa. #birdsNZ

A hihi perching on a branch in Zealandia. Black head and wings, yellow collar, white underparts. Green and red leg bands. Green forest behind.

A karoro/black backed gull flying above 2000m on the Ruapehu summit plateau. Because it's flying above the meltwater lake, its underside is blue, showing the reflection of the lake.

A kākā chomping on some feed at Zealandia, perched on a large branch. It has a white head and rust/brown body with some grey.

A tail slithers through a crack in a corner in a fence

Three birds and a rat tail (rat seen in Wellington). #BirdsNZ

A white-headed paradise shelduck is surrounded by pretty big juveniles.

Again, white-headed mama has 7 or 8 juveniles around, which all have black heads, though the female juveniles have some white around their beak.

It looks like mama paradise shelduck / pūtangitangi raised most of her chicks to juvenile form! I counted 11, though didn't manage to get them all into frame. #BirdsNZ

Today's #BirdsNZ drama: kākā comes to land on the roof outside my window (this never happens) and then immediately gets driven off by a black bird, which could be a blackbird (more common) but by behaviour more likely to be a tūī...

Flower time! A brown and orange parrot nibbles on some fresh flowers in a tree.

Another flower, this one magenta and white, growing in the rocks by the coast.

A buff-tailed bumble bee is yellow and black and sitting on a white railing. It has some sort of orange pouch. The railing has a bunch of lichen as well.

A small black and white crab (common rock crab) in a person's hand.

And back to Aotearoa, around Wellington: a kākā seen while walking around the city, an ice plant, a common rock crab, and a buff-tailed bumble bee. #birdsNZ #insects

A small flashy borb with a black head (with white feathers standing out from the back of the head), yellow necklace, and then a white chest. Wings are black and yellow. The borb is perched on a branch and wearing a green band on one leg and two red bands on the other one.

A different individual is facing the other way on a branch, but also black, yellow, and white. This one has yellow bands.

So many hihi/stitchbird out at Zealandia yesterday! There were 6 of them at the feeder. #BirdsNZ

A pretty rotund brown duck with a white head and chestnut brown, green, and white plumage, taking care of a number of floofy fuzzy brown and white chicks.

Spotted today in the Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā before the rain:

1. mama paradise shelduck / pūtangitangi with a bunch of chicks (papa was nearby of course) #BirdsNZ
2. Chris Hipkins #NZPol

No points for guessing which of these is depicted in the picture.

A tūī hard at work on cherry blossoms. The black bird with a fancy pompom and lacing on the back of its neck is surrounded by pink cherry blossoms.

A clump of pink cherry blossoms with bare branches out of focus behind.

More pink cherry blossoms, this time in front of green bushes and red flowers.

Blossom Valley at Aston Norwood is impressive with many cherry blossoms right now. #BirdsNZ

Ring-necked pheasant: large bird in a tree making weird noises. The chest is brown with spots, while the head has a red mask and a normal sized beak.

What are you doing here near Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill? #BirdsNZ

Saddleback/tīeke foraging in the underbrush for bugs presumably. It is mostly black but has red wattles at its cheeks and also (hence the name) brown/red "saddles" on its shoulders/wings.

One of the takahē that used to live at Zealandia. It's a plump borb with blue and green feathers and a red beak. Seems pretty striking, but I've read that it just disappears in the tussock somehow.

North Island robin/toutouwai is a grey bird with white chest and a small beak. Looks like it's posed to get going any time now.

A very non-taxidermied kākā munches on some parrot food perched on a branch.

There were some good pictures from a visit to Zealandia in 2023. I read that they're getting more takahē! #birdsNZ #birds

A stuffed parrot behind glass which you can kind of tell is brown and red and orange, but the head isn't quite large enough or something.

A kākā munches on some food. Its colours include more vibrant red and orange. It is very much not stuffed.

Somehow this kākā in Grenoble doesn't look quite right, perhaps because it's taxidermied. Also here is an actual living kākā in Zealandia from my archives. #BirdsNZ

Two borbs on packed dirt. They are really borby, blue and blue-green, with red beaks and legs, so it's hard to imagine how they would disappear in the tussocks, but apparently they do.

A brown parrot with reddish chest munches on some snacks perched on a large branch. There is a faint trail of crumbs falling down.

From the archives, the late takahē Nio and Orbell at Zealandia, as well as a kākā, September 2023. #birds #birdsNZ

A tauhou / silvereye perched on a fushia. You can clearly see it's eye and beak.

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This is a feed for people from Aotearoa NZ to share photos or information about any birds in New Zealand. You can use any of the hashtags #nzbirds #aotearoabirds #birdsnz to have your post collected in the feed, or tag your post with these emojis: 🪶🇳🇿

A relatively slim kererū. At first one might think it's just a normal pigeon, but it has a really white chest and greenish/purple wings and throat. Super noisy when flying.

Huh, that's unusual. Saw a kererū sitting on the steps behind VUW Kelburn today. It noisily flew off to the tree afterwards. #birdsNZ #notFromTheArchives

Kea is up to no good but just doesn't weigh enough to open the lid. Poor kea (not). #birdsNZ

Kapiti Island has some takahē! A blue and green bird with a red beak, which somehow manages to look invisible in the wild, is standing on a deck and looking at the camera.

A North Island kōkako on a branch. It is grey with a black face mask and blue (not orange as the S Island species) wattles.

A smol hihi on a branch. Round and olive-coloured, with a white wing feather.

Another wattlebird: the North Island saddleback/tieke, which is also black, but has red wattles.

Rare endemic birds edition, again from Kapiti Island. #birdsNZ

Three kererū on two branches. It's a wonder the branches don't collapse under the weight. These chonky birds have white underparts and green chests. The top left one is in profile and looking in the direction of the camera, while the top right one is head on. The lower one, between the top left and top right one, forms an equilateral triangle, and is somewhat out of focus.

A grey pīwakawaka (beige underparts, frowny looking white brow and mustache) stares at the camera, perched on a log. Its fantail is mostly folded and cocked up.

Two mostly olive-coloured korimako/bellbirds on a branch. The lower one is staring up at the upper one, who is sort of looking backwards at the lower one. "What is it this time?"

A green-with-red-brow-and-blue-wing-feather kākāriki sitting on a bush.

I also pulled out birds highlights. There were a lot of good bird pictures from Kapiti Island last June. #birdsNZ #birds

A blackbirds watches the setting sun from atop a Kōwhai tree.

📌 Welcome to the " Aotearoa Birds 🪶🇳🇿 " feed!

This is a feed for people from Aotearoa NZ to share photos or information about any birds in New Zealand. You can use any of the hashtags #nzbirds #aotearoabirds #birdsnz to have your post collected in the feed, or tag your post with these emojis: 🪶🇳🇿

A saddleback/tīeke perched on a branch looking determined. It has red wattles and darker red wings on an otherwise black body.

A kākā on top of a branch against a blue sky. Maybe it is thinking about opening your backpack.

In terms of introduced species, there is a wildlife sanctuary, Zealandia, in Wellington, and the native kākā have been making an astounding recovery from re-introductions at Zealandia. Also bellbirds/korimako and rilfemen/titipounamu benefit from it. There has […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]