Favoritos de skipperdogman

Honestly this dude just came to terrorise us while we were eating lunch.

A couple of petrels wandered (stumbled maybe a more appropriate description), out of the bush, at least one seemingly very attracted to the UE Boom playing music (Move on up by Curtis Mayfield, if anyone would like to repeat this test for science).
The petrel proceeded to sit right next to the speaker and snap at anyone who tried to come anyone near him. See last photos for the deadly attack launched upon a team mate innocently enjoying lunch

White sparrow with red eyes.
The same sparrow in observation 198428744 photographed on the 4th Feb.
Photographed on the 28th Jan but at a distance , not good quality.

See to be feeding on grain spilt from calf meal for the last month in the barn where photos on the 4th were taken.

Is anyone able to identify the species of bird that this black backed gull has presumably scavenged. Seen at the northern end of Tiritiri Matangi Island. Must be at the upper size limit of what it can carry? This is one of two images.

A pair of swallows was determined to build a nest on the side of our vehicle. For several days the routine was them applying the mud, etc., and me cleaning it off. They clearly weren't getting the hint but did eventually give up when I hung a plastic bag in the door frame to put them off.

Observed after the end of the 2021 breeding season.

At least 10 adult birds gathered on beach, lots of interaction between birds. Very relaxed behaviour. A few days later all birds had departed with none to be seen on the beach.

First New Zealand record. Saw the bird sheltering behind a small bush for around 30 minutes. It then turned and scurried out of sight behind the cliff face. 5 minutes later the bird was back in the same position behind the bush.

This bird was first photographed and reported via the NZ Bird Identification Facebook group. Upon seeing this we made a visit to Waikanae Estuary and scanned the flock of White-fronted Terns several times before the bird flew in and landed amongst them around 11:45am. It then roosted for 45 minutes before leaving to feed in the channel with the majority of the tern flock.
Basic plumage marsh tern with extensive black headphone markings on head, darker grey upperparts than the similar White-winged black tern, along with a longer bill, darker legs, a grey rump, and grey shoulder tabs which are diagnostic for Black tern. This is likely the Eurasian subspecies Chlidonias niger niger owing to the pale underwings and relatively small shoulder tab markings. Would be the 1st record of this species for New Zealand if accepted.

This is a re-posting of one photo from a set of three that included more than one species. The other two photos which have been left as the original posting were (predominantly) of Mallard x Muscovy Hybrids.

One Muscovy is included in this photo.

Albino blackbird. About one in a hundred has some white feathering and one in a thousand is fully white. These are normally leucistic or isabelline birds with a cinnamon cast to the feathers and normal eye and beak colour but this one is a genuine albino. Never seen one before. Probably won’t last long as they are conspicuous, may be ostracized by their mates and probably have poor vision. The observer said it seemed to be almost blind