This video shows the majority of the bird action at one of the water troughs on Puangiangi, over 12 hours one day in August 2026. Most of the birds are identified the first time they show up.
It was a mild day, but even a cold stormy one does not stop them from showing up for a drink or a swim. The footage is from a security camera I’m using for wildlife monitoring, which is set to record only when motion is detected. Do scrub through to find things of interest to you- there are no prizes for sitting through the whole hour.
The camera angle is from on high and seems to “dominate” the subjects. It’s much better to set up eye-to-eye with the birds so it is more about them than the observer. I tried that and the cameras got covered in mud too quickly, so this one is screwed to a tree mostly out of harm’s way.
Nice, I guess there isn’t a lot of natural watering places, especially in periods of low rain fall. Thanks again Barry
Always good to get your comments Grant. There are one or two places with year-round water, but strangely not popular with the birds as far as I know. I often wonder if it is the right thing to provide artificial water sources. Needed for the big purple rails but…
A real treat to see the birds in their natural habitat doing what they do best. Thanks for the opportunity to share in this.
Thanks Carol. I have a love-hate relationship with the weka in the video. I can’t leave my gumboots outside or they go missing, and the broom keeps getting moved also.
what a magical place this is becoming Barry. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks Raewyn. Magically wet today. Getting some weeds knocked over and now drinking coffee checking comments, which for some reason my website does not tell me about. Apologies to anyone who gets ignored for a bit- that is the reason.