​There are quite a few species of parrot in New Zealand, some of which are sadly extinct. There are nine surviving species which are endemic to NZ. Two of these species are on our list of the Threatened–Nationally Critical birds to draw in this series (shown in bold). Sadly, several others are also endangered. 

These species live on the mainland:

• the kea (Nestor notabilis)
• the New Zealand kaka (Nestor meridionalis)
• the kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) – Threatened–Nationally Critical
• three species of kākāriki:
  • the yellow-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus auriceps),
  • the red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae)
  • the orange-fronted parakeet (Cyanoramphus malherbi) – Threatened–Nationally Critical

​Source:
Wikipedia

​These are the island species:

• the Chatham parakeet or Forbes’ parakeet (Cyanoramphus forbesi), from the Chatham Islands
• the Antipodes parakeet (Cyanoramphus unicolor), endemic to Antipodes Island
• Reischek’s parakeet (Cyanoramphus hochstetteri), endemic to Antipodes Island

Source:
Wikipedia

Extinct endemic species:

• the Norfolk Island kaka (Nestor productus), extinct by 1851, from Norfolk Island
• the Chatham kaka (Nestor chathamensis),  extinct by 1550–1700, from the Chatham Islands
• Unidentified parakeet, extinct by 1840, from Campbell Island

Introduced Australian species:

• the eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius) – significant self-sustaining populations
• the sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) – significant self-sustaining populations
• the crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) – smaller numbers
• the Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla) – smaller numbers
• the rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) – ‘unwanted organism’ under the Biosecurity Act

Source:
Wikipedia

On the internet, ​kākāpō are famous for the notorious head-shagging incident when Stephen Fry met Sirocco on the BBC.  

(Sirocco is) a charismatic kākāpō, national treasure and media superstar. He’s also New Zealand’s official Spokesbird for conservation.​

Sirocco rocketed to fame in 2009 after his encounter with zoologist Mark Carwardine became a YouTube sensation. Carwardine was filming the BBC documentary Last Chance to See with British actor Stephen Fry. Footage showed a rather frisky Sirocco attempting to mate with Carwardine’s head as Fry laughed from the sidelines.
Source:
DOC

​The common English name “kakapo” comes from the Māori “kākāpō”, from kākā (“parrot”) + pō (“night”); the name is both singular and plural. “Kākāpō” is increasingly written in New Zealand English with the macrons that indicate long vowels.
[…]
The kakapo is the only extant species of flightless parrot in the world, and the only flightless bird that has a lek breeding system.[35] Males loosely gather in an arena and compete with each other to attract females. Females listen to the males as they display, or “lek”. They choose a mate based on the quality of his display; they are not pursued by the males in any overt way. No pair bond is formed; males and females meet only to mate.
Source:
Wikipedia

​The kakapo is a large, nocturnal, flightless, lek-breeding parrot – a real oddity. It is also critically endangered, and the focus of considerable conservation attention. Before humans arrived it was common throughout New Zealand’s forests, but predation by introduced mammals brought it to the brink of extinction – a low point of about 50 birds only in the mid 1990s. The transfer of the whole population to predator-free islands and intensive intervention in every stage of its life has led to a steady increase in numbers.

Kakapo have no close relatives.
Source:
NZ birds online

What’s unusual about kākāpō?
The kākāpō is a large green parrot with a distinctive owl-like face and a waddling gait. They cannot fly, but they climb well.

Kākāpō are:

• nocturnal
• flightless
• the only lek-breeding parrot species in the world
• perhaps the longest-lived bird species in the world, estimated to reach 90 years
• the heaviest parrot species in the world – smaller females weigh 1.4 kg, and males 2.2 kg. And they can pile on 1 kg of fat prior to a breeding season.

Source:
DOC

Right, time to focus in on the task at hand – drawing the kākāpō. So, how do they fit together?

The skeleton of the kakapo differs from other parrots in several features associated with flightlessness. Firstly, it has the smallest relative wing size of any parrot. Its wing feathers are shorter, more rounded, less asymmetrical, and have fewer distal barbules to lock the feathers together. […] The kakapo has a larger pelvis than other parrots. The proximal bones of the leg and arm are disproportionately long and the distal elements are disproportionately short.
Source:
Wikipedia

OK, so that was a lot of scientific jargon. Basically, little wings, fewer wing feathers, odd leg proportions, and not much of a chest. Got it.

I had a dental procedure under IV sedation today, so while I now have a shiny new tooth, I have spent the day groggy and weird – which is not, unfortunately, conducive to drawing parrots. I have a good idea of what I want to do, but no energy left to do it – so this is where I am stopping for the night. 

So I filled out the sketches, and decided that I would develop four into the final designs.

Choosing the colours was fun – and I made sure to keep the palette simple. 

It was a lot of fun getting the silly expressions on these funny wee faces. I think they came out ok, too!

Colouring feather by feather took a really long time, though – but I think it looks pretty effective. 

OMG – the tokoeka is a Kiwi! How delightful! I really enjoy being a bit surprised by the subject of my design each day, so I research as I go. 

You can’t write about kiwi and not include this viral video.

Tokoeka – literally meaning ‘weka with a walking stick’ (Ngāi Tahu) – has three geographically and genetically distinct forms: 

Haast
Fiordland, and 
Rakiura (Stewart Island).

Haast tokoeka
A shy, mountain-loving bird, the Haast tokoeka is one of our rarest kiwi. More than half the known population lives in an actively managed area of the Haast ranges, where the battle continues to save these birds from extinction.
​Source:
DOC

The reclusiveness of Haast tokoeka makes it difficult to work with but so does the inhospitable environment in which it makes a home – the steep terrain and frequently cold, bad weather of the mountainous South Westland is not for everyone.

Most of the area in which Haast tokoeka are found is covered by the Haast Kiwi Sanctuary, where they are actively managed in situ and through Operation Nest Egg and a 12,000 ha stoat trapping programme.

Haast tokoeka are the first-equal endangered kiwi. Stoats are the main cause of death for many chicks. ​​
Source:
DOC

​Two subspecies are formally recognised: Fiordland tokoeka A. a. australis (Threatened/Nationally Vulnerable), and Stewart Island tokoeka A. a. lawryi (Threatened/Nationally Vulnerable). A third geographical form, Haast tokoeka A. a. ‘Haast’ (Threatened/Nationally Critical), from the Haast Range and Arawhata Valley, is recognised as being distinct for management purposes, based on morphological and genetic differentiation from Fiordland tokoeka.​
Source:
NZ birds online

So, DOC says that there are three sub-species, and NZ birds online says that there are only two, with the Haast tokoeka being only an administrative classification…

Wikipedia also recognises that there are two species, with the Hast population as genetically distinct.
The southern brown kiwi is divided into two subspecies:

A. a. australis, , with a population of approximately 7,000 birds is found on the South Island of New Zealand. A disjunct population, near Haast, called the Haast brown kiwi (not to be confused with Apteryx haastii), is rare (with only about 250 specimens left) and is characterised by its rufous plumage.
Source:
Wikipedia

Right, so in summary, there are 5 species of kiwi.

• ​One species, Apteryx australis, has two subspecies, Apteryx australis australis, and Apteryx australis lawryi. 
• Sub-species Apteryx australis australis includes a disjunct population, near Haast, called the Haast brown kiwi, or tokoeka, which is rare (with only about 250 specimens left) and is characterised by its rufous plumage.​

​And, ok, yeah, it looks pretty understandable that people looking for a kiwi (genus Apteryx) commonly known as the “Haast tokoeka” might think that the Apteryx haastii might be the right bird, especialiiy as it is found on the West Coast of the South Island, although it’s in the northern parts, rather than down south near Haast – the plot thickens!

​Oh, no it doesn’t. It’s just one of those weird coincidences:

In 1871, two specimens [of the great spotted kiwi] were brought to the Canterbury Museum, where they were identified as a new species and were named after the museum’s curator, Dr. Haast.
Source:
Wikipedia

This video includes a slightly awkward commentary, but it also includes a kiwi calling, so it’s pretty cool.

I have drawn kiwi plenty of times before, but never with as much attention to the anatomy of the bird. Kiwi have such a recognisable shape that there’s not much need for accuracy in order to convey that your drawing is a kiwi. 

This time around, I’m drawing “for realz”, so it’s time to really look at the anatomy of the kiwi.

And now, we start the sketches. First, I blocked out a few poses using a simplified skeleton, then I fleshed them out as outlines.

The outlines didn’t take long, but the feathers… The feathers took forever. You can still see the turquoise outlines under the final black lines, here.

And those feathers were a PAIN to colour – but they are done!

OK, so at first glance, this just looks like “a duck”. Like, a normal duck.

OK, yes, fair enough, it looks like a female “normal duck”, or mallard. The colour of the head is a bit lighter. And I’m not sure that I have noticed that cheeky flash of underwing colour on a “standard” (or mallard) duck. 

Aha, this might be why:

The New Zealand grey duck population is believed to be extensively hybridised with introduced mallards to such an extent that few pure grey ducks may now exist, hence its “critical” conservation status. While this presumption is based entirely on phenotype, as definitive genetic studies have yet to be undertaken, the diversity of soft part and plumage characteristics of most grey duck-like New Zealand birds compared to those in Australia lends support to this belief.
[…]
Similar species: grey ducks are easily confused with female mallard from which they can be distinguished by (the following distinctive markings of a mallard):

• bright orange legs and feet
• orange-and-brown bills
• more diffuse eye and bill stripes and mottled face
• a blue speculum edged with white both at front and back.

Hybrid grey x mallard ducks are confusingly variable in most characteristics and otherwise “good” grey ducks need to be examined closely for any indication of anterior speculum stripe (alar bar) on wing (white or fawn, narrow or wide…if it is visible it is probably of hybrid ancestry), hints of orange on legs, and “dirty” cream face with indistinct edges to the facial stripes.
Source:
NZ birds online (my formatting and editing)

OK, so what’s a speculum in this context?​ Oh, it’s the cheeky flash of colour on the wing!

So we need:

• olive legs and feet
• dark grey bill
• sharply-delineated eye and bill stripes, and a ‘clean’ face
• green speculum with white edging only at the back (the trailing or outer edge of the feather from the body of the bird).

Here’s an article from NZ Fish and Game with some more details about the differences between the two ducks, and some examples of types of hybrids. Warning – while there are no upsetting photos, this is intended for hunters, and uses some language that might upset some people. It is linked here only because of the useful information it contains.

​Another thing to note is that, while in New Zealand, this bird is called the grey duck or pārera, it is known internationally as the Pacific black duck.

So now that we have our ducks in a row, it’s time to start drawing ducks!

Last week was absolutely nuts, and unfortunately, several things came up that pushed out my ability to finish my duck design – so we are shooting for one-and-a-half designs today. Wish me luck!

I managed to do my research and get the initial outlines sketched out on Friday before things turned to custard and I had to put the design on hold, so today so far has been about choosing the final lines to draw, and filling in the feather detail. 

​I decided to do some really detailed feather work on these birds, as the reference photos were so crisp, so that took much longer than usual, as did the colouring of all those feathers.

Using reference photos, I tried to reflect the feather colours without compromising my ligne claire style – so no shading, or multiple hues within one outline. It meant re-colouring the same feathers several times to get the effect I wanted, and took a long time – but I eventually reached a stage that felt like a good balance between accuracy and my faithfulness to my type of stylised artwork.

Because the Gibson’s Wandering Albatross ended up being a duplicate, I did a bonus grey duck, so there are 5 today. 

​Oh dear, there are multiple species called “toroa” on this list, and I didn’t realise. Ok, let’s make sure that we get the differences between them really clear!

Consulting Wikipedia:
Current thinking divides the albatrosses into four genera. The number of species is a matter of debate. The IUCN and BirdLife International recognise 22 extant species (listed below), ITIS recognise 21 (the 22 below minus T. steadi), and one recent paper proposed a reduction to 13 (indicated in parentheses below), comprising the traditional 14 species minus D. amsterdamensis.

We have already covered the Antipodean albatross, aka toroa.
Today, we are looking at the Gibson’s wandering albatross/toroa, and we still also have to cover the Salvin’s albatross or mollymawk/toroa, too.

Based on the species information from NZ birds online article about the Antipodean albatross, pictured above, the Gibson’s albatross is actually a subspecies – and I have already drawn two birds with Gibson’s markings. 

DOC also lumps them together in their article – and given that we have so many birds to cover, we are going to call this one done (because it is!) and move on to the next. 

My first thought was: “Magenta petrel” sounds amazing… but the bird is not at all pink or red…
“​At sea, one bird was taken as a specimen in 1867 and named the Magenta petrel after the Italian expedition’s ship” – oh. 

​The tāiko is among New Zealand’s most endangered species. It’s considered to be on the brink of extinction, with about only 15 known breeding pairs.

The tāiko was believed to be extinct for almost a century, until its rediscovery by David Crockett in 1978. In 1987, the first tāiko burrow was found in southern Chatham Island.

Source:
NZ birds online

The reference photos in this particular NZ birds online article are really useful – lots of great, clear pictures of the head and wings. As usual, no good pictures of their wee feet, but I can figure them out. 

I find it particularly interesting that these birds burrow. Check out this clip from the Chatham Island Taiko Trust Facebook page!

The reference photos are great, but there aren’t many to show how the birds actually move around. Most of the resources show the birds being handled, as with the clip below, or are from quite a long way away – so if I have made errors, I apologise.

Now that I have completed my initial sketches, it’s time to choose the final lines.

And, as usual, I use reference photos to set the colours. These birds are definitely not grey, though, so I have broken with tradition and used brown-grey tones to colour them in.

I thought about standing them on rocks, but I can’t decide if I like that or not. The pose looks weird without rocks, though. I will revisit this when I build the final design, but I think no rocks is best for now.

Today has been a busy day, with errands and earrings taking up most of the daylight. As I finally settle down to draw, El Huzbando is already making our dinner!

Shags have a very distinct silhouette, and, with their amusing name, became one of the only non-forest birds that I could recognise easily – but there are so many species! 
The watercolour image below shows the importance of tiny details in making sure each species is correctly represented.

The Chatham Island shag is a critically endangered shag which, as its name suggests, is restricted to the Chatham Islands. It is the only large black-and-white shag in the island group. Despite their declining population, Chatham Island shags can still readily be found roosting on headlands along the rocky coast line. They are entirely marine, dispersing from colonies and roost sites to forage in coastal waters and within parts of the brackish Te Whanga Lagoon. During breeding, compact colonies form on rocky headlands and offshore islets located throughout the Chatham Islands.
Source:
NZ birds online

These pictures illustrate my process of matching the colours from the photos – just colour-dropping the photos doesn’t work, as the colours you see in a photo are not the colours that actually make up the pixels of that photo. Here, you can see the colour-dropped orange, compared to the orange that I actually matched by eye to the photo. 

I particularly enjoy the blue eyes and punky hairstyles of these wee blokes.

​Populations of Chatham Island shag are threatened by loss of breeding habitat, disturbance from stock, human persecution, introduced predators, and gull predation. However, given that population declines have been recorded at colonies on remote predator-free offshore islands, it is likely that some type of at-sea effects are impacting on the population. There has been no direct conservation management action to benefit Chatham Island shag other than co-ordinated island-wide population censuses. The recent increase in fencing coastal habitats on the Chatham Islands will prevent stock from gaining access to some colonies, thereby reducing disturbance.

The conservation status of this species was changed from nationally endangered to nationally critical.
Source:
NZ birds online

It’s sometimes hard to get started on a drawing. Generally, I just let myself choose another task, and come back to the drawing when the mood takes me – but I have committed to a bird every weekday, so here we go – my first attempt at overcoming “drawer’s block”.

We looked at the Chatham Islands for the Chatham Islands black robin last week, so I won’t repeat myself there. Many of our most endangered species appear to have a last toehold there, though. It must be a fascinating place to visit, as a wildlife photographer. 

The Chatham Island oystercatcher (torea) is a threatened species found only on the Chatham Islands, 800 km to the east of mainland New Zealand. Although pied (black-and-white), and similar in appearance to the pied morph of the variable oystercatcher, it is a smaller and stockier bird. Pairs defend coastal territories throughout the year in rocky and sandy sites around the islands of the Chathams.
Source:
NZ birds online

This black and white wader is unique to the Chatham Islands. It is an endangered species with a high risk of extinction due to its very small population and range.
Source:
​DOC

Ok, well, these guys are actually adorable, so I think, yep, I am getting the urge to draw them, yay!

I make the initial sketches (grey), then I go over them in black. This reflects my technique on paper, with pencil sketches followed by finals in pen. 

As with all my other pieces, I use the existing drawings to ensure that the same shades are used in the plumage, then use reference photos to choose colours specific to this bird, usually the beak and/or feet. 

Finished! I really like these guys. I definitely had to show a bird nesting on the shingle – their nests, like many of our endangered birds, are almost invisible against the stones around them. PLEASE, take great care around nesting areas.

​Oystercatchers depend on the coast for their food and for a safe place to rear their young. Nesting birds are easily disturbed by people and will move from the nest to draw you away. Birds with chicks are often noisy and may swoop.

If birds appear to be disturbed by your presence, move further along the beach.
Walk or drive below the high tide mark to avoid crushing eggs or chicks.
If you are travelling to the Chatham Islands, or transporting goods or livestock there, be careful that you don’t introduce pest animals and plants or diseases. These could threaten the flora and fauna in this unique environment.

​Source:
​DOC

Not that long ago, I found out that black-billed gulls were actually endangered. I hadn’t ever really looked at the seagulls at the beach except to protect whatever I was trying to eat*, or avoid being pooed on, as happened on a recent walk along Petone foreshore.
​
*Never feed gulls any food or scraps – some of our food is harmful to them.

The black-billed gull has the unfortunate status of being the most threatened gull species in the world. Stronghold populations have rapidly declined by as much as 80%, resulting in its threat status being upgraded from Nationally Endangered to Nationally Critical in 2013.
Source:
DOC

Though still relatively abundant, numbers of birds throughout the South Island have rapidly declined. Nevertheless, colonies can still number in the thousands. The black-billed gull is found only in New Zealand, unlike our two other common gull species. They are less likely to be found in towns and cities than the other gulls, and are not commonly observed scavenging for food. Interestingly, though declining overall, the black-billed gull has expanded its breeding range in the North Island in the last few decades, and now breeds as far north as the Kaipara Harbour.
Source:
NZ birds online

As a Kiwi, on our islands where almost nowhere is too far from the ocean to get visits from seagulls, I am pretty familiar with them, in a general sense, so I know what types of poses I want before I even start drawing – flying, standing, floating, and doing a SCREM.

Quick scribbles are really useful to establish what might or might not work.

So these guys appear to have the same kind of webbed feet as ducks. Getting them not to look silly is quite difficult!

And then, as previously, I use existing designs to ensure that the colours used are consistent across the board, and the reference photos to identify colours that will be specific to this design.

And there we go – the first week of a bird a day is complete!

Breeding sites [for black-billed gulls] are mainly the large braided riverbeds of the South Island. There are scattered colonies on the North Island coast, along with braided rivers in the Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa, as well as Lake Rotorua and Lake Taupo.
​Source:
DOC
​Please take special care not to drive or walk in areas where birds are nesting – they are easy to spot if you are paying attention. 

​Braided rivers are a beautiful part of the New Zealand landscape.

In my family, we are particularly tied to the Rakaia River mouth, so braided rivers have a special place in my heart. That’s why I commissioned this beautiful tide clock from Wooden Kiwi for my mum in 2017.

​These are personal family photos of the beautiful Rakaia River mouth, which generally forms a “lagoon” against the shingle bank. We often saw birds nesting on this bank, and carefully avoided the area.

Kakii, or black stilt, is a native wading bird only found in New Zealand. It is regarded by Maaori as a taonga species, a living treasure.
Source:
DOC

Once the common stilt of New Zealand, the black stilt is now critically endangered with a breeding population confined to the Mackenzie Basin of South Canterbury and North Otago. Adults are distinctive in having entirely black plumage, long red legs and a thin black bill, but juveniles and subadults can easily be overlooked amongst pied stilts, while hybrids add to the plumage confusion. Black stilts frequent the wide open braided rivers and associated wetlands of the Mackenzie Basin. There they favour shallow waters of invertebrate-rich sidestreams and pools, wading out into deep water if necessary. Some birds migrate to northern New Zealand harbours.
Source:
NZ birds online

Yup, this is another bird with one of those complicated neck situations – not as weird as the bittern, or matuku, but certainly a little more challenging than the adorable wee Chatham Islands black robin.

The process is definitely getting easier and faster – I can already crank out the types of poses I want to draw quite fast, then build the actual birds over the top with reference to photos and video. 
One thing that struck me, though, when I pasted in yesterday’s Chatham Islands black robin so that I could keep the colours consistent, was that the scale of these birds is not consistent. 

As an experiment, I increased the size of my initial â€‹kakÄ« sketches to a more realistic relationship between the 40cm stilts and the 15cm black robins, but then, I realised that the bitterns should be around 75cm tall (I assume, at full stretch), and as for the albatross… It wasn’t looking like an easy fix to address now, especially with so many remaining designs to finish. So, I will continue to create the images at a scale that MS Paint can handle (it crashed when I tried to work on the 4x larger file), and scale them all to each other at the end, when I do the final colouring, too. 
Perhaps I will vectorise them, perhaps I will just re-draw the ones that are going into the final “advent calendar” design. We shall see!

It’s really helpful to already have the plumage colours set, so I don’t have to spend ages worrying about that for now, so all I needed to do was choose a shade for the legs and beaks, then make some decisions from the range of colours I have already set for black birds. Again, everything goes much faster when the decisions have already been made!

I am definitely not the only one paying attention to the plight of our local species. Many other creatives in the craft community do a lot to raise awareness, and even funds, to help a particular bird.
One of my favourite Kiwi bird artists is Melissa Boardman. Here is her take on the kakÄ«, which is the design that I am working on today. 

​Our styles are very different, which I really enjoy, and she shares a great many of her own photos of birdlife, as well, which has helped me get to know so many lovely birds, and pay attention when I am out and about myself.
​So, of course, I had to get myself some of her work!

I hope my kakī artwork measures up!

It’s so difficult, and overwhelming, when you think of how many creatures need our help.

One way to help the wildlife of New Zealand is to donate to Forest and Bird, who run the Bird of the Year competition.

Another option is to check out the individual organisations dedicated to a particular bird. I try to share some of their posts in these blogs, so click through and see what they are up to and what you can do to help.

There is also a section on the DOC article for each bird about how you can help. Here is an example for the black stilt/kakī:

• Do not drive in riverbeds from August to December.
• Birds swooping, circling or calling loudly probably have nests nearby. Move away so they can return to them, or their eggs and chicks could die.
• Watch The Black Stilt documentary on NZ on Screen
• Keep updated on the KakÄ« Recovery Programme on their Facebook page
• Visit the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust website
• Learn about Project River Recovery
• Visit the Te Manahuna Aoraki website

​Robins in general are tiny creatures, straining at the seams to encompass enormous personalities. From what I can tell, the Chatham Islands black robin is no different. 

The Chatham Islands are a New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 800 kilometres (500 mi) east of the South Island of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about ten islands within an approximate 60-kilometre (37 mi) radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Some of these islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of the unique flora and fauna. As of 2013 the islands had a resident population of 600.[1] The local economy depends largely on conservation, tourism, farming, and fishing.
Source:
Wikipedia

The black robin is endemic to the Chatham Islands where it is now confined to the southern extremity of its former range. It is a quiet, confiding forest-dweller, alert and almost always active in the lower forest strata. Birds are commonly attracted to human presence. The species is famous world-wide for its inspiring recovery from imminent extinction in the early 1980s.
Source:
NZ birds online

Sometimes, there are some really heartwarming stories in conservation. The idea that one female robin helped save an entire species is simply incredible, and yet, the story of Old Blue was exactly that. Although the genetic diversity was affected, of course, by all being descended from the one female, the species was still saved. Thank you to Don Merton and everyone else involved.

The good thing about black robins is that there’s nothing confusing about their anatomy. The hard thing is, how do you find four sufficiently different poses for this adorable borb?

Turns out, they just flowed right off my pen! I love their cute little whiskers and their fluffy feathers that almost look like a pelt. 

​Just like all the others, these have been coloured in greyscale for the feathers, and colour for beaks and legs – but I think in this case, these guys might actually be finished!