Close Encounters at the Whangarei Bird Recovery Centre

Learning more about the native birds in New Zealand

So thanks to Peter at Bunkdown, we are meeting Rob at the Bird Recovery Centre one fine afternoon in Whangarei. Before we even enter the centre, the trees are full of white doves! A pretty unusual sight in New Zealand but pretty cool to watch nonetheless. Then we meet Rob, whose passion for birds is obvious from the get-go. He take us into an information centre where the ceiling is covered in an array of seabird taxidermies including the largest in the world, the Royal Albatross. Here, Rob tells us about his kiwi bird, Sparky, who he has raised from a chick. Sparky lost one of his legs in a trap so was unfit to go back out into the wild. Now Sparky is used for educational purposes and seems to have had more adventures around New Zealand than we have.

Seeing kingfishers up-close

After Rob has educated us a little more about the threats to birds in New Zealand, as well as more about the grand life of Sparky, he takes us into the aviary. We first see a pair of kingfishers that are due to be released tomorrow. They are birds we have seen only a handful of times at a distance in New Zealand, but seeing them this close allows us to appreciate their unusually large head and beak in proportion to their body, as well as their beautiful blue and orange feathers.

Awesome close viewing of a real kiwi bird!

A talking tui!

The next birds we see are chattering away to each other – one of them is not even meant to be here! A tui regularly comes back to the aviary to pick up some easy eats. This wild tui talks away with warbles and clicks to the tui that are currently kept in the aviaries. At the sound of Rob’s voice saying: “Come on! How’s your cold!” One of the tui repeat this sentence back to him in the same low-pitch voice! Woah! We have never seen a tui do that! Rob tells us stories of how various tui in the past have had conversations with visitors – just to convey their amazing mimicking ability. Even if we don’t see a kiwi bird today, the talking tui alone is a reason you have to visit the Bird Recovery Centre!

Birds of prey and other visitors

More enclosures hold birds of prey like a couple of harrier hawks that had been hit by cars. When their feathers have properly grown back, they will fly once again. The next enclosure is not meant to hold a bird of prey but a tiny native owl called a morepork makes use of a sheltered bird house nonetheless! Rob laughs and says the bird also used to live in the aviary. The birds just love it here! This very same enclosure is the home of Sparky!