Birding New Zealand – Bird families, Maori culture and pelagics

New Zealand is a fascinating country with its Maori culture, scenic landscape of the Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings, a paradise for seabirds and pelagic fans, and a number of endemic bird families of truly unique birds, many of them threatened of extinction.

7 Wonders Birding offers two short trips that run back to back. The first part is on North Island and the second part on South Island. The focus of the two tours are a bit different. Both programs include a large amount of driving, but it is helped by the many hours of daylight in the Southern summer.
This North Island Program focuses on these specific goals:

• See at least one representative of each of the six endemic bird families. They include Kiwis (North Island Brown and Little Spotted are possible), New Zealand Parrots (Kaka), New Zealand Wrens (Rifleman), Wattlebirds (Kokako and Saddleback), the Stitchbird and the new Mohouidae family (Whitehead).
• See recently rediscovered New Zealand Storm-Petrel on a top NZ pelagic
• See threatened and very local Shore Plover
• See the peculiar Wrybill
• See the torrent loving and threatened Blue Duck
• Get familiarized with the Maori culture.

All this in only 5 days. Lot’s of bang for the buck.

Although the birding is easy, it is quite an intense tour with long days. It could lay your base for a fast introduction to New Zealand and later you can explore on your own, or you may want to add the South Island program to maximize your time in New Zealand.

Many tours to New Zealand run in 21 days and cost over US$8000. In just 10 days we see 80-90% of the same birds at roughly half the price.

The South Island 5 day extension program is more focused on some iconic birds like the Kakapo and Black Stilt, the Kaikoura pelagic, and a visit to Stewart Island.

Check out the detailed description here.