I'd just finished photographing an ink berry flower on the No. 1 Line track when two small birds appeared, flitting around in the undergrowth. I still had the macro lens on, but decided to try for a photograph with that instead of fiddling about trying to swap lenses. In a stroke of great luck, one of the birds came close to check me out, giving me the opportunity for several fairly close photographs.
This is the North Island subspecies of miromiro, the tomtit. Given the streaking on the head, I'm fairly sure this is a juvenile female.
All content © 2014 Pete McGregor
You ended up with a lovely shot of her Pete :-)
ReplyDeleteDitto what Deb said. Your avian shots are always a delight, and again - love the name!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely Christmas card. I hope you and yours will have a happy and peaceful time.
ReplyDeleteLuck and ability! Thank you for this lovely view of a special bird. Hope you don't mind that I have tweeted a link to it.
ReplyDeleteShe looks young, and curious. Happy Summer.
ReplyDeleteDeb, in hindsight I was fortunate to have left the macro lens on.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, some of the Maori names are lovely but can be hard to pronounce at first ('pipiwharauroa' took me a while), but 'miromiro' is easy enough when you're familiar with the vowel sounds. The English names can be fairly dull ('blue duck', for example — how imaginative!) but others have their own charms, and 'tomtit', to my mind, falls into that category.
RR, thank you. The visit from this little bird might have been early, but was certainly a lovely present.
Helen, thank you, and you're most welcome to tweet the link — how appropriate ;-)
Zhoen, pretty sure she was both. Happy Winter to you and the others in the household.
Kia ora Pete...
ReplyDeleteA lovely lass. I recall a few days at the old Maropea Forks hut and a Miromiro kept company with me bumping against the window to have a look then his scheduled rounds. Very industrious. Meri Kirihimete e hoa!
She's such a beautiful little bird. I love seeing her and thinking what a crazy world we live in that I can appreciate the presence of a tiny creature on the other side of the planet. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteKia ora Robb. I always get a buzz out of a visit from one of these little birds. Meri Kirihimete!
ReplyDeleteRobin, it's weird isn't it? Still no substitute for seeing it in person, though.