Confined Kiwis go bird crazy

New Zealanders are researching native birds more than ever during the lockdown.

More time at home and outdoors meant views of the New Zealand Birds Online website soared 42 per cent in April.

Te Papa curator of vertebrates Colin Miskelly said lockdown forced people to slow down, look around, and notice their local environment.

‘‘What’s changed is the people. The birds are probably no different to what they were last month or last year . . . we just started to notice them.’’

Miskelly manages the website, and said he first noticed a spike in views in very early April.

The website scored a total of 103,174 visits in April, an increase of 42 per cent on March.

‘‘The species people are interested in are native birds people are most likely to see in New Zealand cities,’’ he said.

‘‘It shows the birds people are looking up on the website are those they’re seeing in person, and they want to know more about them.’’

Fantail, tu¯¯ı and ruru (morepork) are high on the search list.

Miskelly said morepork were fairly common in Wellington but usually went unnoticed.

‘‘In Mt Cook, we’re hearing them way more during the lockdown,’’ he said. ‘‘We live very close to the hospital. Usually at night, we’d hear sirens at night, but now there’s no sirens.’’

In Kelburn, very near the CBD, photographer Holly Neill captured a white tauhou (waxeye) – a leucistic bird with just pure white and bright yellow feathers.

Additionally, a ka¯rearea (NZ falcon) was spotted hunting in Wellington’s deserted CBD.

However, Miskelly said that as a ‘‘bird nerd’’, he regularly spotted falcons in Wellington’s inner city.

‘‘There’s actually nothing unusual there, but people are just noticing them more,’’ he said.