A recent family event saw us in Hamilton for a few days. The sought after rain was on it’s way so of course I chose to go to the Hamilton Zoo. I am still not overly mobile so chose to spend most of our time there in the Native Aviary. If you have been following this blog for a while you will know that it is the birds that I am interested in anyway, so missing the rest of the zoo didn’t really bother me at all.
We happened to be there when the Native Bird talk was on so I took advantage of the birds coming in for the free seed and got a few close up images of the Yellow Crowned Kakariki and the Antipodes Island Parakeet. I also managed to get the Red Crowned Kakariki while it was having a bit of a bath in the small pond at the top of the aviary.
The aviary is huge and has been at Hamilton Zoo for 18 years. The plants / bush within are fully established and make a perfect home for the 89 birds they have in there. They are successfully breeding bellbirds and kingfishers with young fledgling birds easily found.
I have always said that to photograph birds you first have to ‘see’ them. Sometimes it is a faint movement in the corner of my eye or a twig on a branch moving that shows me where they are but with patience you can learn where to look and how to quickly identify the birds. I was amused to see several groups of people walk past me commenting that there weren’t many birds when right above them I could count at least 6 birds watching them.
The Zoo keeper who did the Native Bird talk was really informative and easy to talk to. He went out of his way to make our experience better and I would highly recommend visiting the zoo if you are ever in Hamilton.