Exotic Birds in New Zealand

Thanks for that review Chlidonias.

I know it's just the grumblings of a senior citizen but I really hate to see some of those Macaw pairings. And to have eight "miligolds" including one paired with a pure Blue and Gold just has me scratching my head and asking "why would you?"

I fully accept that these people own their birds and can do what they like with them but I just don't believe that hybridising them can ever improve on what nature made them.
 
I feel the same about these sorts of hybrids, especially when they're presented in the fashion of "and these ones are miligold macaws. They're from South America. We have bred x many here" so most visitors wouldn't even be aware they weren't real species. The hybridising of macaws is for largely the same reason here as in Australia: lack of enough pure birds. There's not many militaries left in NZ so from the breeder's point of view, better to breed hybrids than nothing. Of course some people also just want to deliberately create new things like "miligolds". This particular hybrid isn't as ugly as some of the macaw hybrids I would say.

Blue and golds aren't difficult to get hold of in NZ though, so I wasn't too pleased to see the one paired with the hybrid because it is just so unnecessary.
 
Chlidonias said:
The hybridising of macaws is for largely the same reason here as in Australia: lack of enough pure birds.
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I wouldn't say this is the main cause for sure. I used to be a member of a large bird forum, and many bred/rescued hybridised macaws, amazons, conures, lorikeets, cockatoos and other species. There was one reason behind it: money. Some members were breeders that purposely bred hybridised birds for extra money, because to most hobbyists they are more worthy and colourful than the pure birds. Another reason was for their colours, it seemed the more you hybridised the different species the more 'beautiful' they became.

I often see blue and gold macaws at a large pet shop near me (along with many native birds and amazons and conures). They are far from rare in Australia, in fact, a worker at the same pet shop told me about thier recommended Hahn's (Red Shouldered) Macaw breeder. The only species that is in any real danger is the hyacinth macaw, I seem to remember only 20 or 40 (either one while I was part of that bird forum) breeding pairs in the entire country.
 
Well, while some species may not be 'rare' in Australia or New Zealand, their genetic diversity is definitely decreasing, and finding unrelated pairs is getting harder for some of these species, especially when they are being hand raised for pets, which is an other debate in itself.
 
Chlidonias said:
Wellington Zoo's on-show bird list from yesterday's visit (as far as I saw):

So, from 2008 there has been a big decrease in on-display bird species (from 31 down to 23). The only new species from the 2008 list are little blue penguin, sacred kingfisher, red-crowned kakariki, cockatiel and domestic guineafowl. Bear in mind this is one of the four major NZ zoos and is situated in the capital city. They boast of trying to become "the best little zoo in the world" -- they're going the right way towards turning it into a little zoo at the rate of species loss here. This really is one of the poorest NZ zoos for birds now (for example, just compare their bird list to that of Willowbank in the previous post, and Willowbank is a small regional zoo).
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I was just looking at some of my old Wellington Zoo stuff, and I found a print-out of their 2002 bird species list, which says they have 48 species at the top, but the actual list comprises 51 species, more than two times their current collection.

The list is:

Barn Owl (still there in 2005)
Black Stilt
Cockatoo (3 species)
Dove (2 species)
Duck (12 species)
Egret
Emu
Finch
Frogmouth
Goose (2 species)
Ibis (3 species)
Kingfisher (2 species)
Kiwi
Lorikeet
Morepork
Parrot (7 species)
Peacock
Pelican
Pigeon (4 species)
Pitta
Plover
Rhea
Spoonbill
Waxeye

Seems like someone really has it in for ducks at Wellington, from 12 to 0 in less than 10 years!

Sad to say I have never (AFAIK) seen several of these species: rhea, noisy pitta and black stilt, as well as 1/2 of the ibises, even though I visited in 2005.

What would the two kingfisher species have been? I assume one was sacred, but the list does not put a native symbol next to this entry, where it does all other groups. I would have thought that they would have listed kookaburra separately, but possibly not.
 
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zooboy28 said:
I was just looking at some of my old Wellington Zoo stuff, and I found a print-out of their 2002 bird species list, which has 48 species on it, more than two times their current collection.
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so 26 species on display this year at Wellington Zoo, 31 in 2008, 48 in 2002, and between 50 and 60 in c.1988 (my first visit, for which I don't have notes so relying on memory) ....... at this rate I figure in twenty years there'll be no birds at all left there ;)
 
Chlidonias said:
Nga Manu - Nga Manu Nature Reserve -and Staglands are also quite good for natives.
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I just revisited Nga Manu yesterday and I'm afraid I'll have to remove it's name from the list of being good for native birds. The variety there now is depressingly low, as follows (in total):

North Island brown kiwi
White-faced heron
Black swan
Mute swan
Paradise duck
NZ scaup
NZ shoveller
Grey teal
Brown teal
Pukeko
Western weka (did not see)
NZ pigeon
Antipodes Island parakeet
Kea
Kaka
Little owl
Morepork
Tui
 
zooboy28 said:
I was just looking at some of my old Wellington Zoo stuff, and I found a print-out of their 2002 bird species list, which says they have 48 species at the top, but the actual list comprises 51 species, more than two times their current collection.

The list is:

Barn Owl (still there in 2005)
Black Stilt
Cockatoo (3 species)
Dove (2 species)
Duck (12 species)
Egret
Emu
Finch
Frogmouth
Goose (2 species)
Ibis (3 species)
Kingfisher (2 species)
Kiwi
Lorikeet
Morepork
Parrot (7 species)
Peacock
Pelican
Pigeon (4 species)
Pitta
Plover
Rhea
Spoonbill
Waxeye

Seems like someone really has it in for ducks at Wellington, from 12 to 0 in less than 10 years!

Sad to say I have never (AFAIK) seen several of these species: rhea, noisy pitta and black stilt, as well as 1/2 of the ibises, even though I visited in 2005.

What would the two kingfisher species have been? I assume one was sacred, but the list does not put a native symbol next to this entry, where it does all other groups. I would have thought that they would have listed kookaburra separately, but possibly not.
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sorry, I never saw the edited version of this post four weeks ago so didn't respond to it. Interesting they had three ibis species in 2002. I saw the Australian white and glossy ibises at Wellington (in 1988 they were housed in a large aviary with cattle egrets, white herons, royal spoonbills, spur-winged plover and an American alligator) but not the straw-necked ibis which must have been the third species; I did see straw-necks at Auckland, though, many years ago, as well as a hybrid straw-necked X white ibis.

The two kingfishers would be the sacred kingfisher and the kookaburra, the only two species ever kept in NZ (at least in my lifetime). At one time Wellington had about a dozen kookaburras in a huge aviary with a flock of Australian crested pigeons. Back when Bird Valley was at its greatest.......

....sigh :(
 
Chlidonias said:
Rather depressingly, the best collection of exotic birds in the South Island is at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens where there is a very good aviary complex housing a lot of different parrot, finch and pigeon species (all of which come from private aviculturists, but relatively few of which can be seen in other public collections). There are also native parrots here (kea, South Island kaka, and some Cyanoramphus).
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I wrote that in February last year, and I thought I'd put a species list here somewhere but I can't see it. So I was in Dunedin yesterday, and this is the collection at the Botanic Gardens:

South Island kaka (bred here for release at Orokonui Eco-Sanctuary outside the city)
Kea
Yellow-crowned kakariki
Red-crowned kakariki
[in years past they also had orange-fronted kakariki and Antipodes Islands parakeets but no longer]
African grey parrot (labelled, but I didn't see the birds this time)
Scarlet macaw
Blue-and-gold macaw
Red-tailed black cockatoo
Yellow-tailed black cockatoo
Greater sulphur-crested cockatoo
Galah
Australian king parrot
Australian crimsonwing
Bourke's parakeet
Scarlet-chested parakeet
Turquoisine
Red-rump
Indian ringneck
Plum-headed parrot
Slaty-headed parrot
Derbyan parrot
Eclectus
Musk lorikeet
Rainbow lorikeet

Barbary dove
Australian crested pigeon
Cape dove
Diamond dove
Emerald dove

Golden pheasant

Hooded siskin
Orange-breasted waxbill
Fire finch
Green singing finch
Jacarini finch
Java sparrow
Red-faced parrot-finch
Gouldian finch
Plum-headed finch
[they used to have more waxbill species in the past]
 
I also stopped in at the aviary at Caroline Bay in Timaru and they have the following:

Yellow-crowned kakariki
Cockatiel
Budgie
Bourke's parakeet
Barraband
Princess parrot
Red-rump
Crimson rosella
Australian king parrot
Australian crimsonwing
Galah
Greater sulphur-crested cockatoo
Indian ringneck
Alexandrine
Sun conure
Peach-fronted conure
Rainbow lorikeet
Scaly-breasted lorikeet

Golden pheasant
Red-legged partridge
Japanese quail
Chinese painted quail
Californian quail

Canary
Zebra finch
 
Chlidonias said:
Yesterday I went to a place that opened to the public fairly recently, Parrot Ranch near Levin in the North Island (about 1.5 hours north of Wellington). It’s basically a parrot breeder’s property that has been opened to bring in some extra cash, with the addition of a few zoo-licence species (namely cottontop tamarin, black-capped capuchin and Madagascar day gecko). It’s only open by way of a one-hour tour which is a bit annoying because you don’t have the luxury of going at your own pace. Also I’ve started keeping bird lists at the zoos I visit for the specific reason of putting them in this thread, and when you’re visiting a private property with many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare birds you do feel a bit dodgy going around noting down what species there are on the premises! I therefore tried doing so sneakily, which probably made me look even more suspect!

Their pamphlet claims that they have “the largest selection of exotic bird species on exhibit in New Zealand”, so I was expecting a bit more but that’s publicity spin for you. I did enjoy the visit though; I saw a couple of birds I hadn’t seen in life in NZ before; and I’d recommend it if you were passing that way and liked parrots (although I personally don’t like breeders’ aviaries, most of them being basically empty boxes of mesh and metal with a couple of perches). The following list is of the species I saw, with a few notes, but there will be a few others that were missed for a couple of reasons. One: we weren’t shown all the aviaries (for example I specifically asked if they had any pure military macaws and was told they had one, but we never saw the aviary it was in); and two: the young chap showing us round was pretty gormless and seemed incredibly bored with the whole affair – on several occasions he would give a vague wave of his hand at a row of smaller aviaries and say “there’s lots of rainbow lorikeets in those” and walk on, and when I naturally went in for a closer look there would be a pair of barrabands here and a group of lovebirds there etc). There was a sign for white-tailed black cockatoo but none of that species on display.

[note that the numbers mentioned below refer only to what I saw; there were probably more individuals of most species than what I saw]

*Cape Barren goose (just one I think)
*Australian shelduck (I saw one randomly walking past as we were leaving)

*domestic guineafowl (just one I think)
*domestic hens and bantams (lots wandering around)
*Lady Amherst’s pheasant (just one male I think)
*Chinese painted quail (several in one aviary)

*Rainbow lorikeet (lots and lots of pairs)
*Scaly-breasted lorikeet (a couple of pairs)
*Red-tailed black cockatoo (two pairs)
*Galah (one pair)
*Greater sulphur-crested cockatoo (a few)
*Citron-crested cockatoo (quite a lot; I counted about ten? This is a very rare bird in NZ)
*Leadbeater's cockatoo (= Major Mitchell's or pink cockatoo) (just one pair)
*Moluccan cockatoo (= salmon-crested cockatoo) (just one bird; very rare in NZ)
*Umbrella cockatoo (= white cockatoo) (maybe three or four? Again, very rare in NZ)
*Little corella (a few)
*Eclectus (only saw two but I’m sure there were some other pairs as well)
*Superb parrot (= barraband) (one pair)
*Red-rumped parrot mutations (I only saw three in their aviary)
*Budgerigar mutations (small flock)
*Red-crowned kakariki (small flock)
*Yellow-crowned kakariki (small flock)
*African grey parrot (a few pairs)
*Timneh grey parrot (a few pairs)
*Masked lovebird mutations (small flock)
*Indian ringneck mutations (a few)
*Scarlet macaw (at least a couple of pairs)
*Blue and gold macaw (just two: one was paired with a military macaw [I didn’t see these ones] and the other was paired with a military x blue and gold hybrid)
*Military macaw (just one, paired with a blue and gold macaw [I didn’t see these birds])
*hybrid military x blue and gold macaw (called “miligold macaws” here) (I counted about eight; one was paired up with a pure blue and gold macaw)
*Sun conure (a few pairs)
*Peach-fronted conure (a couple of pairs)
*Nanday conure (a couple of pairs)
*Maroon-bellied conure (a few pairs)
*Green-cheeked conure (a couple of pairs)
*Yellow-crowned amazon (quite a lot; the guide said the owner really liked amazons)
*Yellow-headed amazon (a few pairs)

*Tui (one old hand-reared bird in a very small cage)

*Canary (small flock)
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the above was posted 1/5/2011; I have just learned that Parrot Ranch is now closed to the public
 
Chlidonias said:
The last legal import, as far as I know, was shut down by MaF due to the birds testing postive for some form of disease not yet present in NZ and the birds were all ordered either destroyed or returned to place of origin. Amongst those birds was one pair of red-bellied macaws, new to NZ aviculture to my knowledge, and also Derbyan parakeets, likewise not then found in NZ. The birds were all officially destroyed .... except that a few years later young Derbyans started appearing on the local market and now they are quite commonly seen for sale (albeit still expensive). The red-bellied macaws never resurfaced.
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I just happened to come across a list of the parrots in the shipment mentioned above. Basically the import (in 1997) tested positive for Pacheco's Disease which wasn't then found in NZ (but I'm assuming is now!!), and the importer was given the choice of return-to-sender or destruction of the birds. The importer obtained a court injunction to stall proceedings and afterwards chose the option of destroying the birds. However in the interim, various species from the shipment were swapped before they were destroyed, and these entered the captive trade here illegally. (Also, it seems that the Derbyans weren't amongst that shipment, so either I remembered that wrong or I was given false information at the time).

Parrots which *may* therefore be in the country (either the actual imported birds or their offspring), but not already mentioned in this thread, are:

Edward's Lorikeet
Yellow-streaked Lory
Papuan Lory
Meyer's Lorikeet
Olive-headed Lorikeet
White-eyed Conure
Green Conure
Mitred Conure
Maroon-tailed Conure
Dusky-headed Conure
Olive-throated Conure
Orange-fronted Conure
Brown-throated Conure
Patagonian Conure
Orange-winged Amazon
Red-bellied Macaw
 
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Chlidonias said:
The Queenstown Kiwi Birdlife Park also has a good but small collection of native birds including North Island brown kiwi and (when I was last there) black stilt.
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I was just at the Kiwi Birdlife Park the other day. The last time I visited was 1998. From a recent map it appeared to have increased in diversity since then but unfortunately it really hasn't. Full bird list (that I saw):

*North Island brown kiwi (with two on-show nocturnal houses)
*South Island pied oystercatcher
*Black stilt
*Buff weka
*Blue duck
*Brown teal
*Campbell Island teal
*NZ scaup
*NZ shoveller
*Paradise duck
*NZ falcon
*Red-crowned kakariki
*Yellow-crowned kakariki
*Antipodes Island parakeet
*Kea
*NZ pigeon
*Morepork
*Tui
 
Aren't there any Spinifex pigeons left in NZ? In Europe they managed to hang on till eary 2000s but they re gone now unfortunately.
 
DDcorvus said:
Aren't there any Spinifex pigeons left in NZ? In Europe they managed to hang on till eary 2000s but they re gone now unfortunately.
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I've never heard of spinifex pigeons being kept in NZ, sorry, so I would say that if they were here then they aren't any longer.
 
Chlidonias said:
I just went to Willowbank yesterday and here is their (on show) bird list. It doesn't look as impressive written out in list form as it did in my head, but when you're actually at the park it seems like a good amount of species for the size of the place. I've put the number of males vs females if I know it (e.g. 2.4 means two males and four females), otherwise I've just put a single number (i.e. I would put 4 rather than 0.0.4 for the simple reason that while I don't know what sex those four birds might be, the staff at Willowbank probably do) and sometimes I've just had to put general wording such as "several" or "quite a few".

*Ostrich (one male, by the name of Bubbles!)

*North Island brown kiwi (I don't know how many birds there are as most of them are in outside breeding pens; there are quite a lot of them though)
*Great spotted kiwi (part of the Operation Nest Egg (ONE) programme so the number of eggs/chicks on site varies from zero upwards; however there is also one adult female off-display [there was a male which had come from Otorohanga to form a breeding pair but he died not long after arrival])
*Okarito brown kiwi (included in ONE as per above)
*Haast brown kiwi (included in ONE as per above)
*With regards to the ONE programme at Willowbank this article from January Willowbank bursting with kiwis - news - the-press | Stuff.co.nz has a photo of a line-up of kiwi chicks there (showing Haast kiwi, little spotted kiwi, great spotted kiwi and Okarito kiwi). Very cool. In January of this year there were 60 kiwi of various species at the park.

*White heron (1)
*White-faced heron (3?)

*Black swan (2 that I think are part of the captive collection but they are common wild birds as well)
*Mute swan (3 I think)
*Domestic goose (a few)
*Cape Barren goose (several)
*Mallard (lots of wild, half-wild and captive ones in varying degrees of domestication!)
*Muscovy duck (seem to be quite a few, also muscovy X mallard hybrids)
*Carolina wood duck (a few)
*Mandarin duck (a few)
*Paradise duck (several)
*Brown teal (at least a couple of pairs. There used to be a pair in the Kiwi House years ago which was great as this species is nocturnal and they were very active in there. Now they are in an outside aviary and never seen)
*Campbell Island teal (at least one. Again, nocturnal. On my last three visits I've seen one in the aviary every time -- but never any on any previous visits!)
*Grey teal (wild ones)
*NZ scaup (wild ones)

*NZ falcon (0.1)

*Domestic turkey (lots)
*Helmeted (domestic) guineafowl (quite a few)
*Domestic fowl (lots and lots!)
*Blue peafowl (lots)
*Golden pheasant (at least 1.2)
*Silver pheasant (at least 1.1)
*Lady Amherst's pheasant (at least 1.1)
*Himalayan monal (1.2)
*Red-legged partridge (these used to be in the Alpine Aviary but I haven't seen any for a while)
*Japanese quail (several)

*Buff weka (several)
*Pukeko (these are everywhere! I expect they are all just free-loaders after the food hand-outs but at least some may be injured or hand-raised birds)
*Takahe (1.1)

*Domestic pigeon (dozens of domestic doves)
*Barbary dove (lots)
*Crested pigeon (quite a few)
*NZ pigeon (quite a few)

*Greater sulphur-crested cockatoo (one or two)
*Leadbeater's cockatoo (I think just one)
*Eastern rosella (several)
*Indian ringneck (lots in various colours)
*Blue and gold macaw (1.1)
*Kea (5 or 6 I think)
*South Island kaka (1.1)
*Yellow-crowned kakariki (several)
*Red-crowned kakariki (several)

*Little owl (at least 2)
*Morepork (at least 2)

*Sacred kingfisher (1)

*Rook (1)
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that post was from 15th March 2011. I went to Willowbank yesterday and the bird collection is now as follows:

*North Island Brown Kiwi
*(Other kiwi species off-show or part of ONE, as noted in the original post)

*White-faced Heron

*Black Swan
*Mute Swan
*Domestic Goose (Sebastopol Geese; I think Chinese Geese as well but I didn't see them)
*Cape Barren Goose (I didn't see any but they should still be there)
*Mallard
*Muscovy Duck
*Carolina Wood Duck
*Paradise Duck
*NZ Shoveller
*Brown Teal
*Campbell Island Teal (now in the old Blue Duck aviary)
*Grey Teal (wild ones)
*NZ Scaup (wild ones)

*NZ Falcon

*Spur-winged Plover

*Domestic Turkey
*Helmeted (Domestic) Guineafowl
*Domestic Fowl
*Blue Peafowl
*Golden Pheasant
*Silver Pheasant
*Red-legged Partridge (saw several of these this time)
*Brown Quail

*Buff Weka
*Pukeko
*Takahe

*Domestic Pigeon
*Barbary Dove
*Crested Pigeon
*NZ Pigeon

*Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
*Leadbeater's Cockatoo (I didn't see it but the sign is still there)
*Blue And Gold Macaw
*Kea
*South Island Kaka
*Yellow-crowned Kakariki
*Red-crowned Kakariki

*Morepork

*Sacred kingfisher

*Canary
*Bengalese Finch
*Java Sparrow

*Tui

*Rook


So changes in the last three years:

Gone:

*Ostrich (he was killed in a storm last year -- http://www.zoochat.com/17/ostrich-killed-storm-336783/ -- and a new Blue Duck aviary is being built on the site of the yard).
*White Heron (presumably has died).
*Mandarin Duck (may or may not still be present; I didn't see any sign of them).
*Lady Amherst's Pheasant (did not see any, but might still be there).
*Himalayan Monal (appear to be gone, and their aviary now has Silver Pheasants in it).
*Japanese Quail gone and replaced by Brown Quail, in an aviary which now also houses Canaries, Java Sparrows and Bengalese Finches (all new since 2011).
*Eastern Rosellas and Indian Ringnecks appear to be gone.
*Little Owls appear to be gone.

New:
*Canaries, Java Sparrows, Bengalese Finches and Brown Quail as already mentioned.
*Spur-winged Plover
*NZ Shoveller
*Tui in a new aviary by the entrance
 
zooboy28 said:
How many rooks did they have, and how were they displayed? Big aviary with stuff to investigate? Or still as in this photo: http://www.zoochat.com/400/rook-corvus-frugilegus-209600/ ?
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exactly the same as that photo. One bird (the same bird) in a small aviary with very little to keep it entertained unfortunately. It is presumably a rescued bird - it doesn't look like it flies too well, although it can fly.

The photo does make it look like a tiny cage but it is more of a small aviary (I would say too small, but I don't know the bird's history; I'll see if I can find out next time I'm there).
 
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