Publications Archive

I visited 10 breeding sites across the range of Fiordland crested penguins (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus) in 1995. Based on the developmental stage of chicks at each of the sites, breeding begins progressively later in more northern colonies. Fiordland crested penguins had unusually high hatching success on Taumaka I. (Open Bay Islands) in 1995, and I suggest from anecdotal observations made at the nine other sites that 12% of pairs may have raised two chicks in that year. Together, these observations suggest that Fiordland crested penguins had an unusually good breeding season in 1995. The suggestion that rare “good” years occur, allowing two chicks to be raised, has implications for explanations of brood reduction in crested penguins.

Rhys Philip Buckingham (MNZM) Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, For Services to Ecology.David Edgar Crockett Companion of the Queen’s Service Order, For Public Services.

[First paragraph…]The Kermadec Group lies about 1000 km northeast of North Island at 29º 15’S, 178º 00’W in the New Zealand archipelago. Its few land birds are all species characteristic of New Zealand: for example, the tui Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae (Cheeseman 1891, Sorensen 1964). Only the red-crowned parakeet is distinguished from its New Zealand counterpart, and then only at the subspecific level as Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae cyanurus (Higgins 1999).

Common land-birds in a rural suburban garden, Wellington, New Zealand, were counted for 10 minutes twice an hour, twice a month for 2 years, from dawn to dusk. The birds’ behaviour sometimes changed or they entered or left the study area during the day; so there is no ideal time of day for counting birds.

Breeding of North Island robins was monitored at two sites in Pureora Forest Park, central North Island, during the 19961 97 and 1997/98 breeding seasons. A total of 146 nests was found. First clutches were laid in September-October (mean: 20 September) and last clutches in November-January (mean: 17 December). Pairs had time to rear three broods during the breeding season (September-March), although most reared only two. Nest materials and nest location are described: mean nest height was 5.3 m (range 1.0 – 13.6). Mean clutch size was 2.60 (clutches of 2 or 3). Monthly mean clutch size increased from September to November, then decreased. The breeding biology of the North Island subspecies of robin at Pureora was similar to that of the South Island robin at Kaikoura. Nesting success improved dramatically after brushtail possums were poisoned by aerially distributed 1080 (sodium monofluoroacetate) baits, because mammalian predators were also poisoned. Robins are easy to monitor, and predation is a common cause of nest failure, so the species is potentially a valuable indicator of predator activity.