Annual New Zealand Garden Bird Survey begins

RNZ News

28-06-2025

A Kererū pair in the kōwhai.
Photo:
Manaaki Whenua/Meg Lipscombe
Hundreds of citizen scientists are set for a stint of bird spotting as the annual New Zealand Garden Bird Survey gets underway on Saturday.
It's the 19th time that Te Tatauranga o ngā Manu Māra o Aotearoa has been held.
From now until 6 July people were encouraged to get out in their garden or go to a local park and look at and listen for birds for one hour, on one day, and record the highest number of each species they notice.
The survey's co-ordinator, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research senior researcher Dr Angela Brandt, said the ongoing data collection showed how the trends for each species might be changing over time.
The survey reported on 14 different bird species that were most commonly seen in the garden to identify trends within those species.
Pīwakawaka (fantail) about to take off in the backyard.
Photo:
Manaaki Whenua/Graham Murphy
Last year's survey found that tūī and pīwakawaka continued to increase, while national declines in silvereye or tauhou lessened.
But there were short-term declines for kererū both at the national scale and in seven regions, she said.
"What we've noticed, especially in our last two reports, was that three species were starting to show these short-term, five-year declines.
"That's the kererū, the goldfinch, and the house sparrow. It's not a cause for alarm necessarily, but it's something that we should pay attention to and we want to see whether those trends start to pick up again or if they continue on that kind of declining end of the spectrum."
Brandt said the survey not only provided information about birds and the environment generally, but it boosted participants' wellbeing by getting them outdoor and observing and thinking about nature.
"We had people saying it was a good opportunity to slow down. Participants talked about feeling curiosity, joy, fun, wonder and a sense of connection."
A Tūī (kōkō) interrupted from its feed.
Photo:
Manaaki Whenua/Colin Keast
It also complemented the monitoring undertaken in conservation areas, she added.
"We're asking people to count all the birds they see, so we get a lot of information on the common species [as well as rare and threatened species] and can then see if they're potentially starting to decline.
"But also we're also getting information from urban and rural areas where people are, so that covers some different parts of New Zealand to the monitoring efforts going on by our science organisations and experts."
For some species there was a lot of variation among regions, she added.
"The fantail is a great example of a species that's quite consistent [everywhere] as we're generally seeing increases over the last several years."
In contrast the korimako (bellbird) was "quite variable," she said.
"Canterbury and Nelson for example, we've had pretty consistent increasing trends for bell birds over the last several years.
"But then we actually have some strong decreases in the counts that we've seen in some of our North Island regions such as Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Manawatu."
It underscored why survey participation was invaluable, Brandt said.
"What's really helpful for us to actually pick up those differences is to get enough people participating in each region, [to] give us that full picture."
How to take part in the New Zealand Garden Bird Survey:
1. Visit the
NZ Garden Bird Survey website
to get started.
2. Select a garden or a local park.
3. Choose any ONE day between 28 June and 6 July.
4. Look and listen for birds on that day for ONE hour.
5. For each species, record the HIGHEST number seen or heard at one time.
6. Submit the results online via the NZ Garden Bird Survey website's Take Part page.
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