Mohoua ochrocephala

This doesn't exactly rank as one of my better photos, but I'm going with it today for a few reasons. One, it's nicely representative of the experience of seeing this particular species, which is often from directly below, horrendously backlit in the canopy. Two, I may not see this bird again while I'm in New Zealand. I was starting to get pretty concerned I wouldn't see it at all until yesterday when it flew into my life. It's actually uncomfortably rare and getting more so all the time. Three, this shot from yesterday gives you perhaps a better idea of what it looks like, and the NZ Falcon of the same afternoon still gets its moment in the Blip-sun.

This is the Mohua, or Yellowhead, a precious bird made that much more so by its tenuous grip on existence. New Zealand's so-called bush canary is one of three endemic species of Whistler, an eclectic Australasian family of small songbirds. Each species (the others are the Brown Creeper of the South and the Whitehead of the North) is subject to predation by rats and stoats, though the Mohua has fared the worst among them by far and is classified as endangered. The main strongholds of the population are in valleys like the Eglinton, where the Department of Conservation runs thorough and therefore successful trapping and poisoning programs against the introduced mammals that prey on the birds and their eggs.

I came across a family group of two adults and two fledglings yesterday afternoon near the outlet of Lake Gunn into Cascade Creek. It was a chance sighting (or hearing, as I noticed their distinctive song first) that turned into a reliable spot for this morning as well. I was really happy to catch a glimpse again, given that it may be my first and only encounter with this special species as long as I'm here.