Lovebird on perch

Birds of Auckland Zoo

On a recent visit to Auckland, we took some time out to visit the birds of Auckland Zoo. It was an extremely hot day, so we only managed to see half of the exhibits there. There are many more birds to see on another visit. There is a walk in aviary with bright coloured lovebirds. I really enjoyed watching and photographing their antics.

Gathering nesting material
Gathering nesting material

The lovebirds are in a walk through aviary and have a very colourful wall of nesting boxes. They worked hard at getting nesting material to take back to line the nest boxes. Each time they returned to the box, they would greet their mate and sometimes share food.

Lovebirds greeting at nest box
Lovebird’s loved up greeting

In the Australian section of the Auckland Zoo, we found some zebra finches that never seemed to sit still for more than a couple of seconds. Tricky to photograph when they move so fast, but the challenge to capture the image is what it is all about for me.

Zebra finch chasing off a rival
Zebra finch chasing off a rival
Zebra Finch standing guard
Standing guard

There were also some lorikeets in the Australian walk through aviary. I had not seen the the yellow one before, it was very striking in its colors.

The emus were the last of the birds in the Australian section of the zoo. They were very hot so were bathing in a small pond. I had some fun with the droplets of water falling from the feathers when the emu stood up.

Emus soaking in a pond
Water droplets falling off the emus back.

The last of the birds of Auckland Zoo that we managed to visit was the flamingos. Watching them stamp their feet in the water to disturb tasty treats and seeing the very tall bird bend over to turn its egg made for interesting images.

These are a selection of the birds of Auckland Zoo that we managed to see, however we also saw many animals and they will be the subject of my next post. Be sure and check it out when it goes live sometime in the next few days. Thank you for the messages sent, I love hearing from you all and am interested in what you are up to in your photographic pursuits. You can contact me here.