non NZ birds mistakenly shown as NZ birds....

SomesBirder · Postby **SomesBirder** » Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:31 pm

AngryBird45 wrote:Also, why is the black-billed gull not listed as endangered?

The page that I got that photograph from was made in 2006, but the black-billed gull has been declining for a long time, so I think that it not having an “endangered” label is most likely to be an unfortunate oversight.

A Grey/Great Blue/Cocoi-type Heron in a New Zealand poetry book from 2014.

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andrewcrossland · Postby **andrewcrossland** » Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:04 pm

I wonder whether this mural in Karori is also a Grey Heron? It looks like it from these angles?

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Jan · Postby **Jan** » Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:40 pm

I've got that book somwhere, inherited from an old birding friend who was given it as a Xmas present. It claims to be ornithologically accurate and the artist is very wellknown, but her depictions of NZ birds are entirely artistically licenced and draw very much on Maori patterns from weaving and such. I like her stuff, but it isn't at all accurate, which is shame. I know the woman who wrote the poems too. She knows nothing about birds.

Raewyn · Postby **Raewyn** » Mon Jun 07, 2021 10:23 am

This is a bit off-topic but do we need a separate thread for NZ birds that are simply mis-named? This was in a magazine article about the bird life at Shakespear Regional Park.

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SomesBirder · Postby **SomesBirder** » Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:20 pm

I concur; that seems to be another heron with an appearance that doesn’t closely match any New Zealand species.

Yes, I noticed the label about the book being ornithologically accurate as well. I’m sure that it wouldn’t matter to their target audience just how realistic the poems and art truly are, of course.

This thread has actually included goofs where New Zealand birds have been incorrectly labelled with the name of a different New Zealand bird for a long time now.

In the case of these interesting kingfishers, I actually did ask the artist about them. The artist informed me that these kingfishers were intentionally given a hybrid appearance, with the body and colour divisions of the Common Kingfisher but with colouration that is closer to that of the Sacred Kingfisher. The artist has made fully accurate art of the Sacred Kingfisher, too.

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SomesBirder · Postby **SomesBirder** » Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:08 am

The title of this artwork says that the location that it shows is near Rotorua. I think that the bird in the water to the right of the pier is a juvenile moorhen of some sort.