Hey, rest of the world, have you tried not having any endemic mammals so that birds evolve over millenia to fill that ecological niche? No? Worth considering!
What about kangaroos
Not endemic to New Zealand. Just Australia and Papua I’m pretty sure.
Damn for some reason I was thinking Australia. But I just looked up endemic mammals of new Zealand and apparently they do have endemic bats and dolphins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_lesser_short-tailed_bat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector's_dolphin
new zealand must be outdoor cat valhalla
They are called Borbs
Bird ID top left to bottom right:
Kererū: Big pigeon that mates for life, nests in trees, and feeds on berries. They are the only bird that can eat certain large berries so they are important for the ecosystem. They crash through trees and have a distinctive flapping sound, but are otherwise quiet. Internationally, they are known for getting drunk and falling out of trees. Their decreasing numbers were a mild concern in the mid-1900s, but they are now slowly rising again. Common in certain areas, but hard to find despite its size because it is silent when it stays put.
Moa: Enormous bird that is now extinct due to being hunted by Māori for its meat. We don’t know much about it, but it likely would have had a deep, booming call.
Bellbird (??)/Korimako (??): Small bird with a distinctive, varied, warbling call often heard early in the morning around the country.
Little penguin/Kororā: The name isn’t lying, this is the world’s smallest penguin. It nests in rocks by the ocean. Occasionally seen in the south of the South Island, contact is not advised as they are easily disturbed by humans.
Kiwi: New Zealand’s national icon, used as a denonym for European settlers and featured on the $1 coin. This flightless bird is really only seen in captivity in zoos around the country, where it is kept in extremely very dark locations. It lays enormous eggs that are almost as big as the bird itself, and has a long beak useful for eating bugs and grubs from the forest floor.
Takahē: An extremely endangered flightless bird that is now only present in captivity or sanctuaries as a result of it and its eggs being targeted by rodents. It only breeds in highly specific situations (but still not as specific as Kakapo, whose numbers are even more limited).
The last one is hard to identify but looks like some form of parrot. Could be Kakapo, but possibly Kākā or Kea?
The reason New Zealand has so many specialised birds is because, until the arrival of Māori and later, Europeans, there were no ground-dwelling mammals. As such, many unique birds evolved to take on roles in the ecosystem that would otherwise be filled by mammals. Without needing to worry about stoats and rats, birds like Kiwi and Pukeko were free to roam on the forest floor and just lay their eggs there, and lost the ability to fly. They haven’t been able to cope after these mammals were reintroduced: The Polynesian Dog, introduced by Māori, posed a problem, but the pests brought by Europeans were a lot worse. Many birds have gone extinct due to being hunted by humans, like Huia and Moa, or by animals, but conservation efforts are quite thorough for the remaining bird species, so hopefully we do not lose any more.
Unfair
Although I’ve seen a quite few spherical Robins in my time
Beautiful
