When it comes to identifying native and introduced birds in Aotearoa the daily quiz Birdle http://birdnerd.co.nz/birdle/ can give you useful practice and is fun too.
🥹 Unfortunately MY garden has very few birds of any description because I seem to be the favourite transit space for all the neighbourhood cats 🤷 Although I notice the sparrows land on the wispy leaves & twigs out of reach of the weight of felines - to eat seeds, aphids etc I presume, & in the case of Blackbirds to eat any Blackcurrants, Blueberries, Raspberries, Grapes etc they can get to through the bird netting!
🤔 Having worked & walked in backcountry areas before, during, after predator control (undertaken for the critically endangered), it was quickly evident that non-target birds benefitted even more from the reduction in stoats, rats, possums, feral cats etc - probably because they had a higher base population to breed from. The people monitoring the predator control were initially a little surprised how much this was evident as no-one really counted species who SEEMED to be coping OK with a predator burden in their breeding areas, so it wasn't obvious how much they were being predated as well.
BTW - the Riroriro is one of my favourite sounds in the bush, and despite the many many hours spent in their company it was very hard to find them in a place they could be photographed 🤷 And on a personal note, my currently nearby bush walks are missing the Kakaruwai (South Is Robin) who have accompanied me from first tramps to extended workdays - there is some predator control happening, so perhaps "one day" a translocation?
When it comes to identifying native and introduced birds in Aotearoa the daily quiz Birdle http://birdnerd.co.nz/birdle/ can give you useful practice and is fun too.
That's cool, thank you!
🥹 Unfortunately MY garden has very few birds of any description because I seem to be the favourite transit space for all the neighbourhood cats 🤷 Although I notice the sparrows land on the wispy leaves & twigs out of reach of the weight of felines - to eat seeds, aphids etc I presume, & in the case of Blackbirds to eat any Blackcurrants, Blueberries, Raspberries, Grapes etc they can get to through the bird netting!
🤔 Having worked & walked in backcountry areas before, during, after predator control (undertaken for the critically endangered), it was quickly evident that non-target birds benefitted even more from the reduction in stoats, rats, possums, feral cats etc - probably because they had a higher base population to breed from. The people monitoring the predator control were initially a little surprised how much this was evident as no-one really counted species who SEEMED to be coping OK with a predator burden in their breeding areas, so it wasn't obvious how much they were being predated as well.
BTW - the Riroriro is one of my favourite sounds in the bush, and despite the many many hours spent in their company it was very hard to find them in a place they could be photographed 🤷 And on a personal note, my currently nearby bush walks are missing the Kakaruwai (South Is Robin) who have accompanied me from first tramps to extended workdays - there is some predator control happening, so perhaps "one day" a translocation?