The banded dotterel Charadrius bicinctus (also known as double-banded plover), is endemic and relatively widespread throughout New Zealand. However, it does migrate to parts of Australia during the winter. This image was taken near Ahuriri Estuary in Hawkes Bay in December 2009.

This photo was taken by Brent Stephenson (www.eco-vista.com), and is copyrighted 2010.

The annual "State of New Zealand's Birds" for 2009 has been added to the Publications page and can be downloaded as a PDF document - click here

"Landcare - Garden Bird Survey 2010" from 26th June to 4th July 2010.
Please visit the garden bird survey website or download the flyer and survey form here.

Note - this is not an OSNZ project.

New "Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand" (4th edition) launched in June 2010

Special offer: 20% Discount for OSNZ Members only!!! Details for orders are available here

FREE ATLAS FOR NEW MEMBERS - WHILE STOCKS LAST!!!

For details of how to join the OSNZ click here or contact you local regional representative.

New Council Members
Colin Miskelly

Colin has been an active member of OSNZ since 1976, but had not sought an elected position before joining Council in 2010. After completing a PhD on the breeding ecology of Coenocorypha snipe at Canterbury University in 1989, Colin joined the Department of Conservation in 1991, and remained with the Department, mainly in Wellington Conservancy, until he was appointed Curator of Terrestrial Vertebrates at Te Papa / Museum of New Zealand in 2010.
Colin has had extensive involvement with threatened bird recovery programmes, particularly on the Chatham Islands, which he first visited as a schoolboy in 1978. His ornithological research interests are diverse, as reflected in over 70 papers published in Notornis and other scientific journals. Recurring themes include historical ornithology, island biogeography and restoration, Coenocorypha snipe ecology, phylogeny and conservation, seabird translocations, and responses of forest bird communities to management changes. He has written or edited three books on the Chatham Islands, including Birds of the Chatham Islands (with Hilary Aikman, DOC 2004) and Chatham Islands: heritage and conservation (2nd edn, Canterbury University Press 2008). He is the chair of the New Zealand bird conservation status panel, and is a member of the Rare Birds Committee. Within Wellington Region, Colin co-ordinates bird surveys on Kapiti Island and within Karori Sanctuary, and has a long term research project (with Graeme Taylor) on restoring petrels to Mana Island.

Murray Williams

Murray is a recent retiree, having completed a 40-year career as a waterfowl and conservation  biologist with the NZ Wildlife Service and Department of Conservation and another 5 years teaching restoration ecology at Victoria University. He thinks he first joined OSNZ as a schoolboy in the late 1950s and admits to being an inconsistent member ever since.

National Wader Counts
At its last meeting, Council confirmed that regions should continue with the OSNZ Wader Counts on a National basis. Read more...
2008 report available here...

All published Notornis and Southern Bird issues are now available online again: http://www.notornis.org.nz
New issues that are less than 3 years old are password protected and only accessible to OSNZ members. Your login consists of a username (your email address that you have provided) and password (the letter "N" in front of your 4 digit membership number that is printed on your renewal form) - for example N1234.

If you are in Auckland, you are very welcome to visit and use the Library during opening hours. Visit their website. Alternatively, you can ask our OSNZ Librarian to photocopy selected pages from a book. Enquiries other than for loans can be made to library@aucklandmuseum.com

2) How you can access periodicals and articles
You can request copies of articles or parts of journals by contacting our OSNZ Librarian. Alternatively, if you wish to receive journals regularly, you can ask our OSNZ Librarian to get your name added on a circulation list (a charge may apply).

So make use of those books and periodicals and get in touch with the Library!

Ever wondered what to do with your bird observations? Do you want to know how many species of bird you have seen in New Zealand but are too lazy or shy to make a list? The OSNZ’s “Atlas of Bird Distribution in New Zealand 1999-2004” was a great achievement but we mustn't stop now. What is happening to birds in New Zealand today? Is the intensification in agriculture and the "dairy boom" affecting even NZ's common birds? Did you know red-billed gulls are declining all over New Zealand - is this serious or a minor readjustment?

Through collaboration with Cornell University and the Audubon Society of America, the Ornithological Society of New Zealand is proud to present this state of the art system for the recording of all your bird observations.

This program allows anyone who wishes to (not just OSNZ members), to enter bird observations from New Zealand (and incidentally anywhere else in the western hemisphere). This data is then compiled into your very own monthly, yearly, regional and life lists for the user AND it contributes data that can be used by scientists to assess the status of New Zealand's birds. It enables all who visit the site to view maps of bird distribution in New Zealand and updates users on rare bird sightings and lists for over 100 "hotspots" around the country. We hope that as many users as possible will take advantage of this program to add an extra dimension to their bird-watching and help science and conservation. If you visit a spot regularly, are working in the back blocks or even if you just record birds on the way to work or in your backyard you should add these observations to eBird. There are so many things we don't know about New Zealand’s birds that eBird may help us resolve.

We hope eBird will help us answer many questions that Scientists and bird-watchers in New Zealand have asked:

For example

• · When do the first cuckoos arrive each year - do they first arrive in the north and filter down the country or do they get to most places simultaneously?
• · Are cuckoos declining?
• · Where do the introduced finches go in the winter?
• · Which introduced birds migrate in NZ?
• · Which native bush birds migrate in NZ?

All these questions require lots of observers making regular records. Even if you don't do regular counts already why don't you start? You can do it whilst walking the dog, driving to work, driving to the beach house, going for a relaxing bush walk - when ever. You can make a difference - take a look at www.ebird.com/nz

The OSNZ Scientific Committee and Council have prepared a document covering the potential effects of wind turbines on birds, for the benefit of those undertaking an Assessment of Environmental Effects for wind farms in New Zealand, and for those reviewing any such assessment. Please click here to see the document in full.