How to identify birds

Garden birds

Identification poster (can be printed at A3. Please note - includes last year's date):
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Australian magpie
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
  Australian Magpie
(sexes similar, a large and distinctive black, white and pale grey bird with a  pointed beak and red eye)
Male bellbird
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
 

Bellbird
(male olive-green, dark head with purple gloss; female browner, with white stripe across side of head below eye)

Top - male
Bottom - female

Frmale bellbird
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
Black-backed gull
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
  Black-backed gull
(sexes similar, large, adults with black wings, white head, and yellow bill; juveniles brown all over)

Blackbird
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net

 

Blackbird
(male black with orange bill; female dark brown with brown/dull-orange bill)

Top - male
Bottom - female

Female blackbird
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net

Chaffinch
Image - A Howe
www.istock.com

 

Chaffinch
(male blue-grey top of head, pinkish-brown underparts, white wingbars; female brownish-grey, white wingbars)

Top - male
Bottom - female

 

 

Female Chaffinch
Image - A Howe
www.istock.com

Dunnock
Image - A Howe
www.istock.com

  Dunnock (or hedgesparrow)
(sexes similar, brown upperparts, grey breast, fine black bill, red eye, orange-brown legs)
Fantail
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
  Fantail
(sexes similar, pied or black, long tail often fanned)
Goldfinch
Image - Tom Marshall
  Goldfinch
(sexes similar, red face, white neck, black crown, black wings with gold bars)
Male greenfinch
Image - A Howe
www.istock.com
 

Greenfinch
(male olive-green, yellow on edges of wing and tail, pale heavy bill; female browner, dull olive-green)

Top - male
Bottom - female

Female greenfinch
Image - A Howe
www.istock.com
Grey warbler
Image - Tom Marshall
  Grey warbler
(sexes similar, grey upperparts, whitish underparts, conspicuous white tip on tail)
House sparrow
Image - Tom Marshall
 

House sparrow
(male chestnut-brown upperparts, greyish-white underparts, large black bib in breeding season, smaller in winter, conical bill; female paler brown upperparts, greyish-white underparts)

Top - male
Bottom - female

Housesparrow - female
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
Kereru
Image - Tom Marshall
 

Kereru
(sexes similar, a large bird with a white breast, glossy purple/green upperparts and head, pinkish-red bill and feet)

Myna
Image - Tom Marshall
  Myna
(sexes similar, starling-sized with a chocolate-brown breast and upper-parts, bright yellow bill and eye patch, and yellow legs. Mostly seen in the north of the North Island only).
Red-billed gull
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
  Red-billed gull
(sexes similar, grey wings, white head with red bill in adults, dark bill in juveniles)
Redpoll
Image - A Howe
www.istock.com
  Redpoll
(sexes similar in winter, dull brown with crimson forehead, male develops pink patch on breast in breeding season)
Rock Pigeon/Dove
Image - A Howe
www.istock.com
 

Rock pigeon
(Rock pigeons or ‘town pigeons’ come in a wide array of colours, but most commonly have pale grey wings with black wingbars, a greenish-purple breast and grey head)

Silvereye
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
  Silvereye (waxeye)
(sexes similar, small, green with white ring around eye)
Songthrush
Image - Tom Marshall
  Song Thrush
(sexes similar, brown upperparts, pale breast with dark brown spots, yellowish-brown bill)
Starling
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
  Starling
(sexes similar, glossy black with yellow bill in breeding season; non-breeding birds spotted white with dark bill)
Tui
Image - Andrew Walmsley
www.awimages.net
  Tui
(sexes similar, adults black with white tuft on throat)
Welcome Swallow
Image - Tom Marshall
 

Welcome Swallow
(most often seen in flight, swallows have dark blue wings and upperparts, a pale breast and pinkish-red ‘bib’ below their beak)

Yellowhammer
Image - Tom Marshall

 

Yellowhammer
(male bright yellow head and underparts; female duller and paler yellow)

Top - male
Bottom - female

Female Yellowhammer
Image - Tom Marshall

Books

The field guide to the birds of New Zealand by Barrie Heather and Hugh Robertson.

Which New Zealand bird? by Andrew Crowe.

New Zealand birds (Nature flip guide) by Andrew Crowe.

Web

http://osnz.org.nz/links.htm

www.nzbirds.com

http://www.tiritirimatangi.org.nz/Birds.htm

www.whatbird.co.nz.

 


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