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Bird scavenger hunt

Objective

To identify birds and maybe learn something about them

Birds you might see...

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Pukeko

  • Also called Australasian swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus)

  • Pukeko are native to NZ

  • Multiple females may lay up to 18 eggs in one nest

silvereye.jpg

Tauhau

  • Also called Silvereye or wax eye (Zosterops lateralis) 

  • Tauhau are small birds

  • They love visiting bird feeders (maybe you could make one)

  • Native to NZ

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House sparrow

  • Also called tiu and English sparrow (Passer domesticus)

  • The sparrow was introduced to NZ in the 1860s

fantail 2.jpg

Piwakawaka

  • Also called fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa)

  • Native to NZ

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Tui

  • Also called parson bird (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae)

  • Adult birds have a notch on one of their feathers and this makes a whirring sound when they fly

  • The two white, curled feather tufts on their neck are also called poi.

thrush.jpg

Thrush

  • Also called song thrush (Turdus philomelos)

  • Also an introduced species (from England in the 1860s)

Ornithology is the scientific study of birds. It comes from the ancient Greek word ornithologos meaning treating of birds

Other birds you may see:​

​Aquatic

  • Seagulls

  • Duck

  • Paradise shelduck

  • Shag

Small birds

  • Chaffinch

  • Greenfinch

  • Yellowhammer

  • Myna

  • Blackbirds

  • Magpies

For more information on birds, check out this website

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/

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