SHORE BIRDS
Royal Spoonbill
The royal spoonbill is one of six spoonbill species worldwide, and the only one that breeds in New Zealand.
It has successfully colonised New Zealand from Australia and is now widespread, breeding at multiple sites on both main islands, and dispersing to coastal sites across the country after the breeding season. In flight, birds hold their neck outstretched and trail legs behind, looking rather awkward, like a “Dr Seuss” cartoon bird. Their closest relatives are the ibises.
A large, bulky, long-legged waterbird with white plumage and black spoon-shaped bill, facial skin, legs and feet. During the breeding season, adults grow distinctive long white crest feathers on the back of the head or nape, up to 20 cm long in males. The crest is raised during mating displays revealing pink skin beneath. The bill is 136 – 220 mm long; the wingspan is circa 120 cm. Breeding birds have a creamy-yellow breast, a yellow patch above each eye, and a red patch in the middle of the forehead in front of the crest feathers. Females are slightly smaller than males, with shorter legs and bill. Outside the breeding season the crest feathers are smaller and the rest of the plumage often appears soiled.
Juveniles resemble non-breeding adults but are slightly smaller with a shorter bill, dark tips to the main flight feathers, and lack a crest and coloured face patches. When wading in shallow water it often submerges the bill and repeatedly sweeps it in a wide arc in search of prey.
Voice: grunts, groans and hisses with chew and cho calls made at the nest.
Bar-tailed Godwit
Every spring, bar-tailed godwits make the 11,000-kilometre journey from Alaska to New Zealand. This is the longest nonstop flights of any non-seabird, and, unlike a seabird, there is no chance of an inflight snack. They are the most numerous tundra-breeding shorebird species to occur in New Zealand, with around 90,000 here each year. Virtually all New Zealand birds are from the baueri subspecies breeding in western Alaska. They can be spotted in the Ngunguru Estuary.
Following the breeding season, birds generally begin arriving from early September, usually after a non-stop 8-9 days flight. They begin departing on northern migration from early March, heading for refuelling sites around the Yellow Sea. They do not breed until their fourth year, so each southern winter there are hundreds of non-breeding birds remaining in New Zealand.
The godwits receive a special welcome from the children at Ngunguru School when they return to the area each spring.
Whimbrel
Whimbrels are large shorebirds which migrate to New Zealand from Arctic breeding grounds in small numbers. Most records are during the summer but a few birds occasionally overwinter.
In New Zealand they typically associate with bar-tailed godwits, from which they differ in being darker, having a striped head and a strongly down-curved bill.
Whimbrels are somewhat larger than bar-tailed godwits and recognisable by their down-curved bill and pale stripe down the centre of crown. They are mottled dark brown above, pale below, with much brown streaking on the throat and breast. The head is conspicuously striped, with a pale eyebrow stripe separating the dark eye-stripe and side-crown, and another pale stripe down the centre of the crown. The rump and back pattern is very variable, ranging from largely white with some brown mottling, to heavily streaked brown appearing almost all dark at a distance.
Voice: a distinctive seven note whistle: ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti.
Whimbrels have been seen recently in the Ngunguru estuary. About 70 whimbrels occur in New Zealand annually. The East Asian-Australasian Flyway population is estimated at 55,000. Numbers are thought to be declining.
For local research on sea birds and bird watching tours from Tutukaka, check this page.