Help with identifying a bird in Maketu

General birdwatching discussion, help with bird identification, and all other things relating to wild birds and birding in NZ that don't fit in one of the other forums.
jessthelibrarian
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Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2022 12:10 pm

Help with identifying a bird in Maketu

Postby jessthelibrarian » Tue Aug 30, 2022 12:18 pm

Kia ora koutou,

Sorry if this is something obvious! I am quite new to birding and to New Zealand in general. I was out at the Maketu mole area last weekend, walking around the beach and surrounding areas. I saw these two birds flying overhead and can't seem to place them, although I quite like how they look. Are they paradise shelducks?

Thanks in advance for any help!

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Oscar Thomas
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Re: Help with identifying a bird in Maketu

Postby Oscar Thomas » Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:43 pm

Kia ora Jess, welcome to the forum.
So looking first at structure, the birds have short legs, bills, and tails, rounded heads and broad wings with white underwings - so we know they are ducks of some sort. The top bird appears to have a brown body and a dark green head, and the lower bird has a pale face and orange legs - these features narrow them down to Mallards (male above and female below), which are introduced and one of our most common birds. Paradise Shelducks are endemic and also very common, compared to Mallards they are larger and louder, males are all black and females are chestnut brown with white heads. They also have mostly white wings with brown and green panels on the upperwings as well. I highly recommend New Zealand Birds Online as a resource to help with the basics of bird ID: https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/ - It is a massive free resource with almost 15,000 photos.
Happy birding!

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