The cute little tauhou/silvereyes with their pleasant, high-pitched trilling are probably the most common native bird here. Korimako/bellbirds and their distinctive bell-like calls and riroriro/grey warblers (who have a distinctive high-pitched warbling song) are also commonly seen and heard.

Pīwakawaka/fantails, kererū, tūī, pipipi/brown creeper, and occasionally miromiro/tomtits are also found in the Town Belt, making it a great place to get more familiar with our feathered fellow city-dwellers.

These birds can often be hard to see, so why not learn the calls of our ten most common forest birds using this bird identification guide. Then, pause on your walk through the Town Belt to see how may you can identify.

Once you get better at identifying the birds you see around town, take part in the Garden Bird Survey. Information you gather can go towards improving our understanding of what’s happening to our precious native birds!

Did you know?

The Māori name for silvereyes is ‘tauhou’ – this means ‘stranger’ or ‘late arrival’. This reflects the fact that silvereyes only came to New Zealand in the 1800s, presumably as a flock were blown across the Tasman Sea from Australia.