pīwakawaka – tīwaiwaka – New Zealand fantail – pied fantail
In Aotearoa New Zealand, we have one species of fantail. It comes in two flavours – a pied morph (the most common), and a black morph, which is more common the further south you go, but still makes up only about 5% of the population.
Fantails are common, because despite the impacts of introduced predators like rats and stoats, they are little breeding machines. They can raise multiple broods during the breeding season – the record being 5 broods and a total of 15 fledgelings!
In Māori mythology, fantails are associated with death.
It seems appropriate, then, that there is a little ghostly white fantail resident around the Whangateau cemetery.
This bird is leucistic – not an albino. You can see it has black eyes, and faint shadow-markings where a normal pied fantail would be brown and buff. Leucism is a partial loss of pigment, but not a complete absence as in albinism. If this bird was an albino it would have red eyes! Dad spotted another white fantail last year in Waipu, and talks about how leucism and albinism work in this blog.
You can also see the worn out flight feathers on the wings – without pigment, feathers are quite fragile and don’t last as long.
I’ve spent a bit of time photographing this wee gem. Everyone who has seen it has been absolutely enchanted by it. There’s something about little oddities that really appeals to us – their uniqueness, their rarity. Even people who aren’t bird people appreciate these little wonders. It’s these shared experiences that I really value when I’m out watching or photographing birds – seeing people get excited by the same things that bring me constant joy.
Jeffery Wells
7 Jul 2019I love the way these little fellas have their undercarriage down in all your photos – they are built for manoeuverability rather than speed!?
Edin
8 Jul 2019Definitely manoeuvrability! They can change directions ridiculously fast – makes them a real challenge to photograph.
Stacee
8 Jul 2019These are my favourite birds to me they are our kaitiaki our guardian’s our loved ones very beautiful
anne
9 Jul 2019They are definitely one of my favourite birds. Amazing photo’s. Thanks for sharing.
parker
18 Nov 2020Wow, that must of been a amazing site!