Part of the justification for the #birdventurenz was to photograph species of birds that I didn’t have any images of. While The Brilliance of Birds doesn’t feature all of the species of bird found in Aotearoa New Zealand, it has a pretty good coverage! Some of these birds I hadn’t yet seen in the wild, or seen at all.

I love birds. But I’ve never really considered myself a ‘birder’. I don’t go out of my way chasing new species to add to my list (a notable exception here….), I’m more of a birdwatcher. I’ll happily stare at anything with feathers and consider it a day well spent – from sparrows to spoonbills to shearwaters.

But something about tracking down particular species to photograph for the book changed that a little. I do get a thrill out of seeing a new species for the first time. Even more rewarding is then spending time with them, learning their movement patterns, their behaviours, their little quirks. Discovering what habitats they like to frequent, figuring out the best way to capture their character in an image. It’s a kind of dance between photographer and subject, and every little thing you learn about a bird’s behaviour helps you make better images.

After spending a day hanging out around Arthur’s Pass with Mike Ashbee (who has just had a brilliant book released about dragonflies and damselflies – check it out!), chatting about all things bird-related while chasing photographs of said birds, I even went so far as to tally up the number of species I’ve seen in New Zealand (204 species, out of a contested total of about 365, depending on what you think a ‘species’ is). Which means that I probably have to admit to being a bit of a birder now.

So which species did I meet for the first time on my #birdventurenz? I’m leaving out all the Kermadec species (you can see them here!), and focusing on my trip southbound onwards. Some I managed to photograph, others I didn’t quite manage to (Great spotted kiwi (roa), marsh crake, Rakiura tokoeka) Here’s a photographic list of those I did get a lens on!