Tuesday 14 January 2014

The Weka

The New Zealand Weka is one of our iconic flightless birds.




Sometimes called a Woodhen, the Weka is a member of the Rail family.  They are 3 to 5 times larger than the Banded Rail at about 50-60cm long (20+ in).



We observed this mother and her chick on Kapiti Island.  They are curious birds and are attracted to humans in search of food scraps.


They have a varied diet from fruit and seeds to bugs, lizards, mice, rats, eggs and other ground nesting birds chicks.  Two of them were even seen attacking a stoat!



This shot of the chick took a bit of luck.  They move fast and he wasn't stopping to pose.


I'm sharing with


13 comments:

  1. Gorgeous photos of the Weka Jocee!
    They are friendly, curious and cheeky birds!
    My in-laws had a bach on Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf and were over run by Wekas.
    The vege garden had to be covered with wire netting!
    Lovely to meet a fellow Kiwi at Our World Tuesday!
    Shane

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  2. The Rails around here are really shy and like to stay hidden. Cool sighting and awesome photos. Enjoy your week ahead!

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  3. Wow, great photos and you are lucky to see them. Stunning.

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  4. Great photos of the Weka and especially good to get a photo of the chick. I saw Wekas in south NZ when I was visiting there a couple of years ago.

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  5. Splendid photos, I do like them!

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  6. Excellent!! And to have you share the chick is a plus!!!

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  7. Now that's a big rail! Great shots, especially nice to get the chick!

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  8. How cool! I can see the resemblance to the rails. Lovely shots. Visiting from Wild Bird Wednesday. :)

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