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Birds
The Inlet » Natural History » Birds
Birds
What birds can be seen in the Inlet?
Fifty species of birds regularly occur in the Pauatahanui Inlet and its immediate terrestrial margin. Twenty-nine species are associated directly with the Inlet waters, fringing marshes and streams and 21 with the terrestrial margin. Fourteen ‘resident’ species are always present on or about the water and 12 on the terrestrial fringe. Most of the remainder are seasonal migrants from within New Zealand that come every year,
usually in their non-breeding season, but there are also a few very occasional visitors such as the solitary Gannet that appears for a few day each year. The Eastern Bar-tailed Godwit is a spectacular migrant that breeds in northeastern Siberia and migrates south every northern winter; a few come to the Inlet. 
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Habitats and the birds they support
The Inlet is unusual in the Wellington region in that it includes many different habitats within a small area. Tidal flats and sand banks make cockles, snails, worms and small crabs available as food when the tide is out (e.g. for spoonbills, oystercatchers, gulls, pied stilts, herons, plovers). When the tide is in they make eel grass and algae available for diving and dabbling birds (e.g. ducks, black swans). Salt marsh and adjacent pasture support grazing birds and those that feed on worms, snails and insects and their larvae (e.g. geese, pukeko, paradise shellduck, mallard, kingfisher, swallow). Open water offers hunting for fishing birds (e.g. shags, gulls, the occasional visiting gannets). Streams provide weeds, fish, insect larvae on the bottom and adults flying above the water (e.g. for ducks, kingfisher, pied stilt, swallow). Woodland and domestic gardens provide insects and their larvae, worms, snails, pollen and nectar (e.g. for starling, blackbird, tui, fantail, grey warbler, waxeye, finches, sparrow, swallow, pigeon).
The most commonly seen birds on the Inlet and in its marshes are Southern Black-backed Gull, Red-billed Gull, Mallard, Paradise Shellduck, Black Swan, Royal Spoonbill, Pied Stilt, Spur-winged Plover, Oystercatcher, Little Shag, Black Shag, White-faced Heron, Pukeko.
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Bird activity
Birds activity provide for some spectacular sights.
Royal Spoonbills elegantly feeding by sweeping their long bill from side in shallow water. Their numbers seem to be increasing each year as the breeding colony on Kapiti Island expands. Sometimes a flock of them can be seen flying home to Kapiti in the evening.
Black Swans majestically moving around the Inlet like an armada of tall ships.
Shags in mobs cruising the Inlet just above water and suddenly settling and fishing.
Herons sedately parading close to the shore, walking carefully as they hunt for small flounders.
Starlings in great squadrons wheeling and turning in an aerobatic display prior to roosting at sundown in winter.
Gulls rising and swooping with the thermals and air currents on sunny and windy days. |
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Do the birds cause any problems?
Unfortunately birds are sometimes a nuisance as well as a delight. At present two species are causing concern.
Black Swans’ favourite food is eel grass, which until recently was in decline in the Inlet. A couple of years ago it seemed to be recovering, which is important as dense eel grass beds provide excellent habitat for many small animals that are in the food chain for fish and also may help protect cockles. The number of swans in the Inlet is increasing dramatically and quickly and may well be affecting the recolonisation of sand banks by eel grass. Research is needed on this issue. Canada Geese numbers have also risen sharply over the past five years. This introduced species is aggressive and is interfering with breeding of other species in the Wildlife Reserve. It is also a voracious feeder and produces copious quantities of faeces, which are rich in nitrogen and a potent eutrophication agent in the confined shallow ponds of the salt marsh.
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