Mount Aspiring National Park Birds

On Friday , June 5, while hiking near Glenorchy in Mount Aspiring National Park, I got the opportunity to observe several birds, some of which are now rare in New Zealand compared to just a few hundred years ago. The first bird I got a glimpse of was the Yellowhead, as it foraged among the moss that all but completely covered the beech forest we walked through. The Yellowhead (Mohua ochrocephala) is now the most threatened species of its genus, though in the 1800’s it was apparently very common, inhabiting podocarp-hardwood forests (such as Rimu, Totara and Miro). The clearing of those forests as well as the introduction of new mammalian predators (rats, stoats, etc) led to its decline and now this insectivorous bird is found only in beech forests with fertile soils where it can find plenty of food. It is now estimated that 1000 to 2500 Yellowhead birds remain.

As we walked, flittering along close to the forest floor were Acanthisitta chloris chloris, the South Island subspecies of the bird commonly referred to as The Rifleman. Though not considered vulnerable, all other members of its family are either in danger or extinct (the most recent being the Bush Wren, last seen in 1972). The birds seemed to follow us as we proceeded down the path (judging by the high-pitched ‘peep’ they would emit every so often), though with my poor camera skills and their restless nature I was not able to catch any of them in a photograph. I was able to see the male or males due to their near constant movement, as the green plumage on the male Rifleman’s back makes them hard to observe otherwise among the green forest floor. The Rifleman or Titipounamu is also New Zealand’s smallest bird, with each bird weighing 6-7 grams.

As we were heading back, there was a great commotion of birds in a nearby tree that had produced fruit. Among those present were some of the aforementioned birds plus another type we had not seen yet: the kakariki, yellow-crowned parakeet. The yellow-crowned parakeet still inhabits parts of mainland New Zealand, unlike the closely related red crowned parakeet, which survives only on offshore islands. Both have been severely affected by rats, and have tried to obtain food from human crops when their own food sources had failed due to these introduced rats. As they fed, they were constantly chattering, perhaps advertising the abundance of food on the tree to other kakariki in the area. Yellow-crowned parakeets are classified as near-threatened, whereas their close relations, red-crowned parakeets and orange-fronted parakeets are vulnerable and critically endangered, respectively.

This however is just a small sampling of the diversity of New Zealand birds.