Magpie sighted

[Nathanael Coyne <>]

I lived in Christchurch New Zealand 2011-2013 and don't recall seeing magpies!

The iconic species I recall are the kereru pigeons up in the Port Hills, the New Zealand falcon or kārearea in the Canterbury plains, Kea up in the mountain passes and the South Island Tomtit or New Zealand Robin in the beech forests plus the occasional Tui in urban areas, and the Fantail, Morepork Owl and Weka (mostly in the north-west of the South Island)

If anything is a threat to NZ native birds it's stoats, ferrets etc and our introduced Tasmanian possums.

Nathanael Coyne

On 9 January 2015 at 21:50, John Harris <> wrote:

Magpies were introduced into NZ in the 1860s and are now very common and officially listed as a pest species due to the possibly incorrect assumption that they are a threat to NZ native birds.

From: Megan Mears <>
Date: Friday, 9 January 2015 9:29 pm
To: chatline <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] Magpie sighted

Not that unusual but it was in The Catlins region, south in the South Island NZ, a few days ago. 

Megan