Margaret Orbell: Birds of Aotearoa (A Natural and Cultural History)

Reviewed by STAN PINNEGAR

In all traditional societies, writes the author, birds have been a constant source of ideas and metaphors because of their power of flight, their songs and their beauty, and the great variation in their appearance and behaviour.

To the Maori, she says, birds must have been all the more important because of the absence of large mammals, so their presence had a profound effect on human thought and emotion.

There she sets the scene for what is a fascinating study of New Zealand's birdlife, both past and present, and the special relationship the birds shared with Maori life.

Those of us living in suburbia will be well aware of the increasing numbers of native birdlife flocking to our gardens over the past few years: wood pigeons, tui, silvereyes, fantails, and even the mysterious morepork have availed themselves of the nectars and berries or the shelter from shrubs and trees planted by residents of cities and towns.


If NZ birds lack the vibrant colour of, for example, Australian birds, they are at least their equal in personality and character. Compare the fantail with the willy wagtail or the kookaburra with the kea.

Orbell's introduction alone is required reading for birdlovers and those interested in Maori lore.

She moves on to the ratites, including the moa and the kiwi, then diurnal birds of prey, such as the eagle, harrier and falcon. Then to one of my favourites, the parrot family and the kaka. Once so abundant in our forests, the playful kaka is now an endangered species that is doing best on islands.

For the Maori, the author tells us, nothing surpassed potted kereru, or pigeon, but the kaka was also much liked. Kaka, we are told, take about 65 days to fledge and have so much to learn that it is a further five months before they are fully independent. Catching the shrewd and wary kaka, Orbell says, was much more difficult than taking the somnolent kereru. Sometimes they could be speared but could not be snared, for they would quickly tear the nooses apart.

So why are they now so rare?

Turn the pages on the parrots and on to the wattlebirds (huia, kokako and saddleback) and then to everybody's favourite, the honeyeaters and the tui and bellbird. A few months ago while wandering Smith's Bush on the North Shore, I stopped to watch a tui chasing off sparrows from its own special tree. As it swooped in the sunlight, it glistened with the author's description of iridescent green, purple and bronze. Until then, I had thought of the tui as being a rather dull black.

Of course, there is much on the wonderful kiwi, and those night hunters the morepork, on birds of the open country, as well as of the forest, and birds of the shore. And the loveliest songbird of them all - the poor, extinct piopio.

Birds of Aotearoa is a thoughtful and comprehensive study, nicely written, and sumptuously illustrated.

* Reed Books, Auckland, $39.95