Whaka-Ora Bird Monitoring

Here is our guide to sea birds that you might find in Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour!  If you are having trouble identifying a bird, mark it as unknown in the form or write about how it looks or sounds in the "Anything else you would like us to know" section. For more information on each bird, click on their names. Kawau tikitiki/Spotted shag 60-75cm large bird Green-blue facial skin Yellow/orange feet Adult breeding birds have black spots on their back and upper-wings, and two white stripes from each eye down to their necks Young birds are paler and more brown Fly low over water in "V" formation Call is loud grunts in nesting areas, but silent elsewhere Māpunga/Black shag 80-90cm, large bird yellow cheeks breeding adults have red/orange cheeks and small black head crests young birds have black-brown feathers Call: mostly quiet away from nest. At nests, males are loud and females have soft and husky voices. Easily confused with: little black shag. Little black shag is...

Here is our guide on land birds that you might find in Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour!  If you are having trouble identifying a bird, mark it as unknown in the form or write about it in the "Anything else you would like us to know" section. For more information on each bird, click on their names. For our guide on native birds click here .  Dunnock/Hedge Sparrow Look for: Small brown bird. Easily confused with Pihoihoi. Pihoihoi is greyer, with striped stomach and light colored beak.  Greenfinch Look for: Biggest green bird, with green back and stomach. Hurukōwhai/Yellowhammer Look for: Small yellow and brown bird. Kāhu/Harrier Look for: V shaped body while flying. Kererū/Wood Pigeon Look for: large bird with green head and wings and white body. Loud flapping wings. Koera/California Quail Look for: patterned stomach and neck. Feathers sticking out from the forehead.  Korimako/Bellbird Look for: Distinctive call, "like bells". Easily confused with Greenfinch. Greenfinch...

Nau mai, Haere mai! Welcome and thank you for helping take care of our harbour! Below is a step by step guide on how to do a five minute bird count. 1) Know which birds to look for Before you head out to count birds, make sure you can identify the native birds that are common in Whakaraupō. For some more practice, check out our guide on Whakaraupō's birds here . Or use our printable sheets to help identify the birds. 2) Choose a spot Five minute bird counts can be done anywhere, as long as you stay in the same spot for the whole five minutes. Bird counts that are close together can help give a clearer idea of the birds in that area, although try to make them at least 200 meters apart from one another. Far apart bird counts can help Whaka-ora get a better idea of the birds across the harbour. You can even do a bird count in the same exact spot on different days. For more inspiration on where to look, click here for our guide on past data. 3) Pick a day Try to count birds on a day ...

The actions of humans have lowered the amount of birds in Aotearoa. Whaka-Ora has started several projects to try to return and keep birds in Whakaraupō. There have been a couple of surveys on the number of birds in the area over the years though there has not a regular way of counting birds in Whakaraupō. The most recent project was done in 2017 and published in 2020. This survey counted the number of native seabirds and found that the most common one is the spotted shag. They took a boat and walked around the entire peninsula counting the birds in each spot they stopped. Area surveyed in 2017 study. Note that white lines are areas surveyed on land. The oldest report was in 1998 and counted seabirds. They found that the most common species were the Black-backed Gull, Red-billed gull, Black-billed gull and white-fronted tern. They found that there were big differences in the number of birds in different seasons and spots. This could be important because both of the other studies focu...