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We’re not sure if our far away readers know much about New Zealand.
We had some very cool visitors out our back window just the other day!
They are plump – it’s amazing that they can fly! As well as clumsy – they have been known to fall out of trees…*sigh* But they also have beautiful colouring and our Native to New Zealand! 
Take a look…
Cool aren’t they! Their proper name is Kereru, but are also known as New Zealand’s Native Wood Pigeon. They are not your average Pigeon, they are on a larger scale, which the wobbling branches in the video would suggest!
Here is your Common Pigeon 
weighing in at: 300g/10 oz
Here is your Kereru (NZ Wood Pigeon)
Weighting in at: 700g/24 oz
- They are New Zealand only seed distributors. – if the Kereru become extinct so would our Native forests
- They love the fruit of a certain tree (we can’t remember the name of it), but it makes them drunk and they fall ut of trees!
A lot of New Zealand’s Native animals are birds, we also have many native amphibians and insects. We have one very special reptile and just one Native mammal!!!
The bird that everyone associates with NZ is this one…
The Kiwi
- It looks nothing like your normal bird
- It can’t fly – it has tiny little wings.
- It carries the largest egg to any bird in proportion to its size
- It is nocturnal – coming out to forage for worms and insects at night
-
It’s endangered – there are many conservation programmes to make sure it doesn’t become extinct!
- There are many sub-species of Kiwi the Largest weighing in at about 2kg!
See how big the egg is in comparison!
The Kakapo
- It can’t fly – it’s to heavy
- Weighing anywhere between 2-4kg
- It’s a parrot
- Is critically endangered – in 2011 there are only 131 left!
- Mainly lives on the ground or low foliage.
- Is nocturnal
- The worlds heaviest parrot
- The world only flightless parrot
New Zealand also has many Native birds that can fly!
Black Robin, Tinie Tiny little bird!
Tui, known for its beautiful song!
If you would like to hear a Tui’s call click here
Kea - Another Native Parrot, you got to watch out for those beaks though!
The Kea it thought to be one of the smartest parrots! They have VERy strong personalities, will rip the rubber on your car off if you're not careful!
New Zealand has many flightless birds, and they are all very endangered. Do you remember us telling you that we only have one native mammal? That native mammal is a fruit-eating bat! New Zealand’s wild-life has never had any natural predators, so it has been perfectly safe for them to get plump, slow and live on the ground with no way of escaping predators – they never had any for thousands of years. Then humans found New Zealand and brought with them their cats, rats, dogs, stoats and possums. our plump, slow and flightless birds are easy targets and they are now suffering and conservation workers through out New Zealand are working very hard to make sure these very special birds don’t become extinct! Click here to learn more about our Native Birds and Wildlife.
And last be not least, our very special reptile…
The Tuatara
- Tuatara are rare, medium-sized reptiles (adults ranging from about 300g to 1000g) found only in New Zealand.
- They are the only living members of the Order Sphenodontia, there were many species in this order that lived during the age of the dinosaurs, some 200 million years ago. The Tuatara is the only living species in that Order today!
- They are of huge international interest to biologists and are also recognized internationally and within New Zealand as species in need of active conservation management.
- They can live over 100years!
Well we hope you enjoyed your lesson on Native New Zealand animals. We think we are very lucky to live here, in a country with such special animals, we are even lucky enough to not have some of the big scary diseases , parasites, bacteria and other scary things. We hope if you ever visit NEw Zealand or have visited before you understand why our customs and biosecurity procedures are so strict at the airport when you come in from another country!
Way cool!! You guys have some awesome native species. Thanks for the tour!;0)
Our human would love to visit New Zealand. She likes that they don’t have snakes (according to a TV show she watched)…she hates snakes. She’s pretty sure that it’s just gorgeous after all she watched some movie made there.
That was quite interesting! Though Id scream if I saw that Tuatara! eeek
Very interesting post, guys! We loved to learn more about New Zealand and native animals! Thanks for sharing!
Thor and Jack
Hi there you all!
I just finnished reading your older posts and I am now starting to follow your updates
Your blog is wonderful. And I’m sure I will be learning much from it. Like from this post
That was interesting.
Have a wonderful days!
-Lilli-
Hi Lexi & Jasper,
Greetings from the South of France! Nice to visit your blog.
Thank you for all the photos and video on my favourite subject!
You have some wonderful big birds to watch (and maybe run after errrhmm!).
I only really see big seagulls from a distance.over here..there are little blackbirds around but I can only hear them…my human thought your post was interesting to read – thanks!
Bigdogzola
How fascinating! We loved seeing so many cool critters!
Nubbin wiggles,
Oskar
Most informative! Thank you! We were surprised to learn how birds and reptiles were the only native species on lots of Pacific islands; guess NZ lucked out to at least have a bat, too. Do you have native bees to help pollinate your crops? Mama is very worried about the decline of our bee populations. And are there no marsupials in NZ? Mama is a bit confused about how NZ arose; being as it’s volcanic but also has indications of having broken away from what became Australia many eons ago. Hope Mr. & Mrs. Kereru successfully finish their nest and raise a healthy brood. And those mama kiwis sure have our sympathy, pushing out those huge eggs!
Jed & Abby
Oh dear giant pigeons ! My favorite ! Please can you send me some of your Kereru in France ? I loved reading this post, especially as I love any kind of bird. The Tuatara is very impressive, here in Bordeaux we have reptiles too but they are mostly tiny lizards and I can barely see them crossing our path.
We do understand why the biosecurity at the airports is so strict and believe it is hugely important to preserve places like New-Zealand. My humans say they hope they’ll be able to come and visit one day.
Love,
Your French Furiend Lincoln
Giant Pigeons – wow!! i just hope they look lovely in the trees and are not like the normal pests that inhabit the cities ?
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