Australia: (02) 69 20 2238 International: +61 269 20 2238

The Glenn Harris Collection - Aussie and NZ Birds

White Swan
The mute swan is one of seven swan species found world-wide and was introduced to New Zealand from 1866. It maintains a tenuous hold in the wild on wetlands in Hawke's Bay, North Canterbury and lake Ellesmere. Some live in a semi-feral state in town parks. They once numbered several hundred in the wild but the April 1968 Wahine storm destroyed much of their feeding habitat in their stronghold at Lake Ellesemere and the popluation crashed. There are now perhaps only 100 in the wild.


96 x 66mm
Palm Cockatoo

The Palm Cockatoo is a big black bird with red cheeks, a wild floppy crest and an enormous beak. It lives in and around rainforest and feeds on the insides of really tough nuts. To get to its food it has the strongest beak of any bird in the world. Apparently confined to the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula, although its exact distribution is yet to be determined.

50 x 95mm
N Z Albatross
Using the wind, albatrosses can achieve continuous flight without beating their wings. This is known as dynamic soaring. The pattern begins with a dive with the wind behind, a swoop low over the waves and a turn and climb into the wind to attain original height. Dynamic soaring works best in what is called a "good blow". Albatrosses are able to maintain course in a moderate wind but make leeway when wind speeds exceeds 70kmp

95 x 84mm
Pitta versicolor
"Noisy Pitta"

The Noisy Pitta bounces around on the rainforest floor looking for leeches and snails to eat. It has a creamy breast but bright orange belly, a black mask with chocolate brown cap and, when it flies, brilliant turquoise on its wings and tail and sudden white wing spots.


61 x 96mm
Fruit Dove





The Wompoo Fruit-Dove is a big rainforest pigeon. It has a green back, yellow belly, grey head and purple throat and breast. It feeds on fruit in the tops of trees.
Lives along the east coast of Australia





60 x 95mm

Wedge Tail Eagle
The Wedge-tailed Eagle is Australia's largest living bird of prey and one of the largest eagles in the world. It reaches 0.85-1.05m in length and has a wingspan of 2.3m. The Wedge-tailed Eagle is found throughout mainland Australia, Tasmania and southern New Guinea, from sea level to mountainous alpine regions. It prefers wooded and forested land and open country, generally avoiding rainforest and coastal heaths. Eagles can be seen perched on trees or poles or soaring overhead to altitudes of up to 2000m.

95 x 47mm
Magpie Goose

The Magpie Goose is widespread throughout coastal northern and eastern Australia. It can be seen in floodplains and wet grasslands from Fitzroy River, Western Australia, through northern Australia to Rockhampton, Queensland, and has been extending its range into coastal New South Wales to the Clarence River and further south. Some individuals, mostly younger birds, may be seen at quite long distances inland.


96 x 81mm
Pay in Aussie or USA Dollars.
Falcon

With eyesight said to be six times more powerful than humans, flying at speeds up to 230 kmh and uttering a short terrifying scream, the falcon will fall upon some hapless bird in mid flight. The manoeuvre is called a stoop, a trademark of the attacking falcon. From there the falcon will take its victim to some killing place to deliver the final stroke, the dislocation of the bird's neck. The severing is done with the aid of a specially notched tooth common to all falcons. Finches are fair game, and so are starlings, blackbirds, thrushes and skylarks

46 x 95mm

New Zealand "Kea"


A Kea stalks through the warren of shearwater nest holes, bending down every now and then, head cocked to listen. The shearwater chicks crouch silently in their burrows but occasionally they call. The Kea reacts swiftly and starts to dig. Using its beak like a mattock it tears away the earth around their burrow's entrance and reaches inside. The mutton-bird is not entirely defenseless and may squirt fish oil into the Kea's face. The beak that is so effective as a mattock now becomes a billhook and rips the young shearwater to pieces.

95 x 77mm


Haarst Eagle

The Haast eagle succumbed to the environmental damage resulting from Polynesian colonisation. It became extinct probably several hundred years


94 x 88mm
Harrier Hawk


Summer or winter, Kahu, the harrier hawk, can be seen drifting over the countryside looking for something likely to eat. The hawks soar over the country in wide circles with a slow steady flight, remaining on the wing for hours without apparent fatigue. They fly slowly into the wind, alternately gliding and flapping their wings as they quarter the open country.


57 x 96mm

New Zealand Black Swan

The black swan was introduced as a game bird from Australia to New Zealand in the 1860s but also probably reached NZ naturally at about the same time as the population grew and spread very rapidly.


98 x 61mm
Chaffinch

For more information of this and other Finches
Please Click Here




Cassowary
Cassowaries are Gondwanan in origin and were concentrated in the small part of the supercontinent that later broke apart and became the present areas of Northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and some of the eastern island groups of Indonesia. Two separate populations of Australian cassowary exist - one in the Wet Tropics area from Mt Halifax/Paluma through to Cooktown and the other on Cape York Peninsula in the McIlwraith and Iron Ranges, Jardine River area and the Eastern Dunes.

95 x 80mm
Kingfisher

Kingfishers are small unmistakable bright blue and orange birds of slow moving or still water. They fly rapidly, low over water, and hunt fish from riverside perches, occasionally hovering above the water's surface.
Young birds are similar to the female, but have varying amounts of rusty-brown edging to feathers on the collar and underparts, and buff edges on the wing coverts.
The voice of the Sacred Kingfisher is a loud "ek ek ek ek" repeated continuously throughout breeding season. Birds also give a "kee kee kee" in excitement and a series of chirring, scolding notes when alarmed.


Laughing Kookaburra


An Aussie icon, the Laughing Kookaburra is often heard from a great distance. It's the worlds largest kingfisher and it's brown and white plumage is easy to identify.
Budgie

Budgie's live in dry open inland places of Australia, near scrubby areas, they drink the dew that forms on plants.
They also fly in large flocks, sometimes in the thousands.
In Summer months they travel to woodland areas to breed.
Also as a popular household pet.

72 x 98mm
Wren

The Blue Male Wren is among the most striking Australian Birds. Shruby areas is the preferred home.
There nest is an untidy home with its entrance at the side.
They have a pretty reeling song which they sound in the morning before daylight and then shortly before dawn.
94 x 68mm
Emu

The Emu is Australia's tallest native bird, reaching 1.6-1.9m when standing erect. It weighs 30-45kg, which is lighter than its closest living relative, the Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuarius. Emus are easy to identify. Adult Emus are covered with shaggy grey-brown feathers except for the neck and head, which are largely naked and bluish-black. The wings are greatly reduced, but the legs are long and powerful. Each foot has three forward-facing toes and no hind toe.

90 x 98mm

Pelican

The Australian Pelican is found throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea and western Indonesia, with occasional reports in New Zealand and various western Pacific islands. In Australia it is widespread on freshwater, estuarine and marine wetlands and waterways including lakes, swamps, rivers, coastal islands and shores.


97 x 90mm