Wellington Newsletter

Download the latest Wellington newsletter here

Other recent newsletters from around the regions are available here 

June Birds New Zealand magazine published

The June Birds New Zealand magazine has been published with a cover photo featuring a Koekoeā Long-tailed Cuckoo taken by Tony Stoddard.

This edition contains news of new research on aerial bird surveys and monitoring Weka predation of the Sooty Shearwater colony at Kapiti Island funded by the Birds New Zealand Research Fund, the upcoming nationwide Royal Spoonbill survey, and the recovery of a beach-wrecked Australian cuckoo during an Auckland beach patrol.

There is also news of Tītitipounamu Rifleman dispersing more widely around the capital, the release of more Kiwi-Nui North Island Brown Kiwi into the wild near Mākara, and how 3D-printed replica eggs have helped the Department of Conservation to improve the survival and productivity of rare Tara Iti NZ Fairy Tern nests.

There are illustrated feature articles on the completion of Birds New Zealand’s five-year NZ Bird Atlas project written by the project co-ordination team, Colin Miskelly’s marathon walk along the entire length of Te Araroa Trial to gather bird observations for under-reported Atlas grid squares as told by Colin, and a “Chatham Islands Atlas Adventure” written by magazine editor Michael Szabo.

This edition also includes reports from outgoing Birds New Zealand President Bruce McKinlay and incoming President Natalie Forsdick, and the regular illustrated quarterly reports from all 14 of Birds New Zealand’s regional representatives from the Far North to Southland.

Link to the magazine: https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Birds-NZ-Magazine42_June-2024_web.pdf

Nelson Newsletter

Download the latest Nelson newsletter here

Other recent newsletters from around the regions are available here 

South Auckland Newsletter

Download the latest South Auckland newsletter here

Other recent newsletters from around the regions are available here

Otago Newsletter

Download the latest Otago newsletter here

Other recent newsletters from around the regions are available here 

Canterbury Newsletter

Download the latest Canterbury newsletter here

Other recent newsletters from around the regions are available here

Banding Newsletter

2024 Birds NZ Youth Camp – Makarora

The latest 5 day Youth Camp held in the Makarora Valley and delivered by the Aspiring Biodiversity Trust was a great success!

Read the report here

Whanganui Newsletter

Download the latest Whanganui newsletter here

Other recent newsletters from around the regions are available here 

Members can now choose to opt-out of receiving printed copies of publications

Council is always aware of the need to manage the financial resources of Birds New Zealand efficiently and wisely.  For many years a large item of expenditure has been, and continues to be, printing and postage of our ‘Notornis’ scientific journal and the ‘Birds New Zealand’ magazine.  Council is aware from correspondence and from conversations that many members do not read ‘Notornis’, or prefer to read and download individual papers and short notes on-line.  Some prefer to read the magazine on-line too.

Following a discussion at its meeting in November 2022 on ‘Financial Resources, Independence and Administration’ – a topic set out in the Society’s long-term strategy – Council resolved to offer members a choice of continuing to receive printed copies of both publications, or receiving only the Birds New Zealand magazine, or not receiving printed copies of both publications.

Arrangements made by our website development partner now allow members to opt-out of receiving a print copy ‘Notornis’, or to opt-out of receiving print copies of both ‘Notornis’ and the ‘Birds New Zealand’ magazine.  Please note that opt-ing out of receiving printed copies of these publications will not lead to a reduction of your membership subscription.

Members are invited to visit the Society’s website at any time; just go to birdsnz.org.nz/membership/login/#myaccount/. Then log-in to your Members Account using your email address and password.  At the foot of the Members webpage, you will see the following opt-out choices in the drop-down selection box:

If you wish to opt-out of receiving (i) a printed version of the “Notornis” journal, or (ii) printed versions of “Notornis” AND the “Birds New Zealand” magazine, please select option (i) or option (ii): 

• (i) I want a printed copy of “Birds New Zealand”, but NOT “Notornis”.
• (ii) I DO NOT want any printed publications.
• (iii) I want printed copies of BOTH publications.

If NO selection is made, or you select option (iii), you will continue to receive printed versions of both publications.

Please note, these selections cannot be made by Family Members who do not receive printed copies of the publications.

Council encourages members to consider these choices carefully and to opt-out of receiving printed copies of our publications if you don’t really need them.

The journal and magazine are published four times each year (March, June, September and December) and can always be accessed at no cost through the Publications Archive page on the website by visiting birdsnz.org.nz/publications/. Just select the issue you wish to read.

Bruce McKinlay
President

Auckland Newsletter

Download the latest Auckland Regional Programme here

Other recent newsletters from around the regions are available here 

Beach Patrol Submissions – now easier!

With a new user-friendly design and modern look, the Beach Patrol Scheme now has an online submission facility, which makes recording easy!

Check out the new Beach Patrol Scheme page and online submission form

Read more about the new Beach Patrol Scheme, its history and objectives here

First dedicated Seabird Surveys for Samoa

A research team from Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Samoa Conservation Society and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, accompanied by seabird expert Chris Gaskin, undertook a seabird survey on Nuútele Island, Samoa.

Read more about their findings here

This project was supported by the Pacific Island Bird Conservation and Research Fund (PIBCRF)

Historical Publications – now available Online 

Check out our new Historical Publications page, which now includes the

Annotated Index to Some Early New Zealand Bird Literature by H. C. Oliver (1968)

and an Introduction to the Index

Why do seabirds die?

Initial analysis from a recent study into the cause of seabird deaths, based on injured birds from the Hauraki Gulf, suggests the main cause to be head trauma, followed closely by internal bleeding or a combination of both. These are the types of injuries consistent with that of groundings and collisions from light pollution as many seabirds have been documented to be disorientated by lights and end up landing on the ground and/or colliding with structures. The research, using dissections and necropsies, has helped provide some evidence that seabird groundings from light pollution can be fatal for many seabirds. This information can be used for future planning to reduce light pollution in New Zealand cities, and internationally.

A summary article of this project is available here

This research by Agustina Dominguez and Ariel-Micaiah Heswall was supported by the Birds New Zealand Research Fund.

New method for identifying bones

Recent research on bird bone shape and taxonomic ID has provided a new method for identifying isolated long bones using shape combined with landmark- and pseudolandmark-(landmark free) based classification analysis. The 3D shape-based classification method was applied to a case study of seabird bones belonging to penguins and tubenosed birds, where order- and family-level predictions of taxonomic identities were achieved with 100% accuracy. This work has now been published in Journal of Archaeological Science https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103641 and a summary article is available here.

This MSc research by Emma Holvast was supported by a David Medway Scholarship grant.

New Zealand gains two more endemic bird species

Recent analyses by Te Papa revealed several surprises that affect the conservation significance of prion populations on the Chatham Islands in particular, and also in the New Zealand subantarctic region as a whole!
The key findings were:

• The ‘fulmar prions’ from the Chatham Islands are not closely related to the true fulmar prions that breed on the Bounty Islands and Snares Islands (Western Chain), and are more closely related to fairy prions. As they breed in close proximity to fairy prions (on Mangere Island and the Murumurus), we recommend that the prions that breed on The Pyramid and the Forty Fours be recognised as a full species that is endemic to the Chatham Islands (Pyramid prion P. pyramidalis).
• The prions that breed on Heard Island (Australian territory) are subantarctic fairy prions (Pachyptila turtur eatoni) NOT lesser fulmar prions (P. crassirostris flemingi). This means that lesser fulmar prions are endemic to the Auckland Islands, and that Australia has lost a breeding species
• As the ‘fulmar prions’ from the Chatham Islands are not closely related to the true fulmar prions that breed on the Bounty Islands and Snares Islands (Western Chain), this means that the fulmar prion as a species is endemic to the New Zealand subantarctic region, with one subspecies on the Bounty Islands and Snares Islands (Western Chain) and the other subspecies on the Auckland Islands.
• Two subspecies of fairy prions should be recognised. Within the New Zealand region, the subantarctic fairy prion (P. turtur eatoni) breeds only on the Antipodes Islands. Beyond New Zealand it breeds on Macquarie Island, Heard Island, Kerguelen Islands, Crozet Islands, Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Under the New Zealand Threat Classification System, P. turtur eatoni should be classified as ‘Naturally Uncommon’, with the qualifiers ‘Secure Overseas’ and ‘One Location’.

Read more on the Te Papa blog:  Then there were eight: Te Papa research reveals yet another species of prion
and the research paper: Genomic analyses of fairy and fulmar prions (Procellariidae: Pachyptila spp.) reveals parallel evolution of bill morphology, and multiple species

A lucky find – Matsudaira’s storm petrel

There are a handful of bird species that are included on the New Zealand list based on a single specimen found storm-wrecked somewhere on New Zealand’s long coastline. Curator Vertebrates Colin Miskelly describes the discovery of the latest addition to this list. Read more

A new page for “Matsudaira’s storm petrel” has now been added to the New Zealand Birds Online website.

Celebrating a lifetime dedicated to seabirds

Graeme Taylor, Principal Science Advisor Marine, has been awarded the Robert Falla Memorial award at the 2022 New Zealand Bird Conference which was held in Christchurch in June.

Read more here

Australasian Bittern Survey (Birdlife Australia)

Australasian Bittern are a partially nocturnal, cryptic, and nomadic heron species, which historically, have been observed in three countries, including Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. The species has been classified as globally endangered since 2016 due to the declining trajectory of its small remaining population (1000 – 2499 individuals). The lack of rigorous baseline data and understanding of breeding behaviour of the species have been identified as barriers to effective conservation efforts aimed at reversing these trajectories.

Very soon, male Australasian Bitterns will begin establishing their territories in freshwater habitats comprising dense reedbeds, and producing a distinct, low frequency call referred to as a ‘boom’. This boom both attracts females and intimidates rivals.  Birdlife Australia is recruiting listeners from across the Australasian Bittern’s range to undertake coordinated listening surveys and help identify this season’s breeding sites.  Ideally, volunteers should be available once over these date ranges:

• September 8 – 12th,
• October 8 – 12th,
• November 6th – 10th,
• December 6th – 10th

There’s no expectation to be available for every date. Listeners can determine how many they’re available for. Even just one dawn or dusk survey during the identified dates is an exceptional contribution.

More information can be found here: https://www.networkbirdlife.org/volunteer-opportunities/keep-an-ear-out-for-australasian-bitterns-at-your-local-wetland

Birdlife Australia