NZ has some crazy-arse birds! NZ used to be part of the super continent Gondwanaland, but split off early and developed its own crazy ecosystem in which there was only one mammal- a now extinct bat- so birds didn’t have predators to worry about, resulting in many of them becoming flightless.
NZ has the only flightless songbird, a wren. Also, the only flightless parrot. And of course the flightless Kiwi. Kiwi’s are nocturnal so hard to see, but we have seen some cool birds nonetheless.
While we were whale watching we saw two giant Albatross (largest wing span of any bird in the world). While driving through Arthur’s Pass National Park (in NZ’s southern Alps) we saw a Kea- the only alpine parrot in the world. He just came walking up to us while we stopped to eat a picnic lunch. NZ also has Black Swans that we have seen in parks and on the coast. I keep hoping to come across a Kiwi with insomnia…
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