New Zealand birds

In some ways, bird watching in New Zealand is very easy. The birds are just THERE: the ubiquitous Purple Gallinule, or Purple Swamphen: 

Immigrant goldfinches.

Kingfishers, a few metres away on the edge of the reef.

A white-faced heron perched on a pohutakawa tree above our heads, unmoving.


A yellow hammer. Pied stilts, in a field on KariKari... And, of course, the New Zealand Dotterell.