Family Adventures: Bird Watching on the West Coast of Slouth Island

The West Coast of the South Island stands in stark contrast to the east, receiving substantial rainfall attributed to the presence of the Southern Alps and prevailing westerly airflow. This region is adorned with rainforests, creating a unique environment for diverse flora and fauna.

On the third day of our South Island expedition, December 17, 2023, we found ourselves on the lush west coast, exploring Motukiekie Beach, traversing the Paparoa Swing Bridge, and marveling at the Pancake Rocks and Blowhole.

It was low tide when we walked on Motukiekie Beach, and the rain paused. As I went to get a closer look at the emerged rocks in the Tasman sea, a pair of black birds with red beaks - variable oystercatchers - caught my attention. One stood at the top of a rock, the other was about to land. As the second landed, the first oystercatcher moved away a few steps.

As I turned to the sea, I saw a big bird - gage cormorant - about to land on the tallest rock near the beach. It looked around a bit after landing then started to preen itself leisurely in the wind under the overcast sky.

Motukiekie Beach

Oystercatchers

a gage cormorant

As we resumed our journey, a brownish bird foraging by the roadside drew our attention - the Weka, an endemic flightless bird, slowly exploring its surroundings.

Weka (Woodhen)

Pancake Rocks and Blowhole is a small park on west coast, featuring amazing formations of pancake rocks. There are many white birds on the rocks, which we mistook as seagulls initially. I realized they were not gulls but white fronted terns when I zoomed in at pictures and did some online check. This is a bird with distinctive black cap on their heads, which extend to their eyes, form a sharp contrast to their white foreheads.

white birds on a pancake rock

white fronted terns - Tara

Over the following three days in Franz/Josef Glacier village, we continued our exploration, encountering new bird species during kayaking and hiking excursions.

Our first major action in the area was a guided kayaking on Lake Mapourika. There were at least two white herons on the lake that day. One was close to the kayak launch area. The heron and a family of ducks were at a cove by the launching area. The white heron looks like a snowy egret to me, either name, it looked so elegant and graceful, standing or in flight.

a white heron

Kea is a large mountain parrots native to south island, it is a very intelligent bird. It has mostly olive-green plumage with brilliant orange color under its wings, it has a grey beak having a long, narrow, curved upper beak. On the posters, the bird's wings are fully expanded, highlighted by its orange-red under wings.

I saw Keas at the village quite a few times but did not recognize them as Kea because what we saw was so different from what was displayed on posters about the bird. One morning at the village, I spotted the bird again, and it was walking around slowly, cutting grasses with its beak. Its curved beak is so obvious. Most Keas I saw walked slowly on the ground but I did see one Kea flying to the top of a tree.

Kea is wide spread in south island. We had another close encounter with Kea on the hilly road connecting Te Anau to Wilford Sound, while waiting for passage at a one-way tunnel. There were several Keas by the road side. One jumped onto the hood of our car, and looked into the window. As it walked on the windshield, it opened its wings to balance itself and we got a chance to see its orange-red feathers under its wing! (we did not capture it on photo)

its orange color feather tips showed

the curved beak

Another big bird native to south island we saw was the colorful New Zealand pigeon, or Kereru. The first time I saw it was at the small garden by the Fox Glacier viewpoint. The adult Kereru is very big, and it has white breast and iridescent green to blue plumage, and a red beak. There were 3 ~ 4 Kereru in that small wooded area. The Kereru just hopped from branches to branches, not flying.

It is also wide spread. I did see Kereru flying overhead, and I could hear the flapping of their wings!

Kereru

New Zealand pigeon, a.k.a. Kereru

iridescent plumage

The third large native bird to south island is Tui. Tui has a blue, green, and bronze colored plumage with a distinctive white throat tuft (poi) - a puffy white ball or two. I spotted it first at Lake Matheson near west coast, and later inland, in the mountains, along Makarora river.

At first glance the bird appears completely black except for a small tuft of white feathers at its neck and a small white wing patch. Looking closely under bright sunshine, it can be seen that Tuis have brown feathers on the back and flanks, a multicoloured iridescent sheen that varies with the angle from which the light strikes them, and a dusting of small, white-shafted feathers on the back and sides of the neck that produce a lacy collar.

They are territorial - I witnessed one tui chasing another away from a flowering tree multiple times. We also observed that some tui seemed to have two tufts, others have one. I postulated that the one with two tufts male, and with one female. We did see two sculptures of tui at the entrance of a mountain resort, one tui has one tuft, the other has two. But there is no such indication in literature.

Tui

looks like a dark bird

this Tui has two tufts?

Lake Matheson, Lake Gault areas have many beautiful birds. In addition to Tui, another beautiful bird is common chaffinch. Chaffinches are known for their loud, cheery song and "pink" calls. The male chaffinch's song is a descending trill of musical notes that ends with an accelerated ending. I was first attracted by their songs, and then looked for whereabouts of them. They have multi-colored body - brown chest, dark grey head, black and white stripped feathers on the wings, and greenish tail. Chaffinch is common in south island. I saw them in many places afterward.

common chaffinch in a tree

common chaffinch on a paved trail

There are many tiny birds on south island. Those are the birds that are frequently heard and rarely seen. On the Lake Gault track, in the forest, we were vocally greeted by a few birds along the way, sometimes we thought they were right above our heads, but we could not locate them most of the time.

However three tiny birds came to the branches hanging over the trail to sing and dance, and I did get just enough time to take photos of them.

One tiny bird, tomtit, a black bird with white breast and white strips on its wings, appeared on the tree branches extended to the trail. It was singing and dancing on the branch for me to see and to record for a while before disappearing into the woods.

Another tiny bird we saw multiple times along the Lake Gault track was south island robin. It sings clear and fast. The 3rd one was rifleman, which is claimed to be he smallest bird in New Zealand. These 3 birds are well camouflaged for the environment they choose to perch - tomtits on dark bark trees, south island robins on grey bark trees, and riflemen stand close to leaves.

Their songs and vibrant presences enhanced our hike along the Lake Gault track, making it an unforgettable and joyful experience. The revelation of Fox Glacier upon reaching the lake served as the literal and figurative cherry on top of an already remarkable journey.

This west coast trip brought me to 12 new bird species, bringing the total to 18 new discoveries.