New Zealand Garden Bird Survey / Te Tatauranga o ngā Manu Māra o Aotearoa (2022)

New Zealand’s annual garden bird survey is on now, 25th June – 3rd July 2022.

The information, collected by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, “helps our researchers make decisions to protect our environment. It also tells us if what we are doing in areas such as predator control is working”.

Anyone can participate - there is information about how to take part here. There are tally sheets that include photographs of the species you are most likely to see. Te Reo Māori tally sheets are available here.

Additional online information to help with identification is here.

Last years results are nicely summarised here. Some of the highlights are:

“Kererū counts now show a rapid increase (102%) over 10 years compared to the moderate increase seen last year, and the rapid increase over 5 years continues (57%).

We continue to see a shallow increase in pīwakawaka (fantail) counts over the long term (47%), with a moderate, rather than rapid, increase in the short term.

Tūī (kōkō) counts continue to show a shallow increase over 10 years nationally (30%), with moderate or rapid increases seen in four regions (Canterbury, Marlborough, Otago, and the West Coast) in the long or short term.

The long-term shallow decline in silvereye (tauhou) is lessening (10% compared with 23% last year), and the short-term trend has accelerated to a moderate increase (40%).”

There is also a photography and a colouring competition, both with prizes.

If you have access to a printer, you might want to print some of the posters available, including some with Te Reo Māori:

If you want to go further, and make your backyard more bird-friendly, there is information to get you started here.