piwakawaka/fantail - ghost edition

This past weekend was a very good one. Myself and some other bird nerds - photographer Tawhai Moss and Zealandia ranger Chrissy Joy headed up to Stratford, near New Plymouth to find the very rare and very special leucistic pīwakawaka Fantail. This beautiful bird is completely white and is seriously stunning, photos don’t really do justice just how stunning she is.

We arrived in Stratford just as the sun was fading, we walked around the park she lives in and eventually spotted her! She was fluttering around with a bunch of other fantails at the very top of the trees, but it was too dark to get any photos. The next morning we headed towards the park, extremely excited to see her again, we walked around for about an hour before we spotted her. She was fluttering around on the grass on the outskirts of the park, she was so small and so angelic. We followed her as she lead us to the tennis courts, and back towards the trees, and she eventually settled in a spot that has a grassy bank with a few trees for her to perch in.

Naturally we snapped lots and lots of photos of her, she seemed to be putting a show for all her admirers We watched her for over an hour, and in that time quite the crowd had gathered. She flew really close to the ground at times, and was even very close to peoples feet. It really was surreal, and something I’ll never forget.

I have so many photos of this beautiful little bird so I’ll share them in batches. Here’s the first batch, stay tuned for more photos!