This guided tour, leaving from Auckland and ending in Christchurch, will visit some of New Zealand’s premier birding hotspots. During the 21-day trip, we aim to visit such places as Tiritiri Matangi, Miranda, the Central Plateau and Pureora Forest, Manawatu Estuary, Kaikoura, the South Island West Coast and Glaciers, Milford Sound, Central Otago, and Stewart Island.

New Zealand is simply a stunning country, with so many unique species of birds. We will be aiming to see members of the three New Zealand endemic families - kiwi, NZ wattlebirds, and the NZ wrens. However, this is the tip of the avian iceberg, with so many other unique species. How about wrybill - our name sake - the only species in the World to have a laterally curved beak, the New Zealand pigeon - the World's largest, or the New Zealand storm-petrel - thought to be extinct until we rediscovered it during a pelagic in January 2003! Birding in New Zealand is an amazing experience, and seeing it with us will make it even more special. Although birds are our passion, New Zealand has a lot to offer in the way of scenery, history, and other wildlife (such as marine mammals). We will be sharing as much of this with you as well.

As well as visiting many of the premier land-based birding spots, we will undertake several pelagic birding trips at various ports around the country - Hauraki Gulf, Napier, Kaikoura, and Stewart Island.

What can you expect to see?

The following stats give an idea of our success rates over the past 2 years for finding the important (mostly endemic) species.

100% Success :
Southern brown kiwi
Yellow-eyed penguin
New Zealand grebe
Buller's shearwater
Hutton's shearwater
Black petrel
Westland petrel
Cook's petrel
Stewart Island shag
King shag
Spotted shag
Paradise shelduck
Blue duck
New Zealand scaup
New Zealand falcon
Weka
Takahe
South Island oystercatcher
Variable oystercatcher
Black stilt
New Zealand dotterel
Banded dotterel
Wrybill
Red-billed gull
Black-billed gull
White-fronted tern
Fairy tern
Black-fronted tern
New Zealand pigeon
Kaka
Kea
Red-crowned parakeet
Yellow-crowned parakeet
Long-tailed cuckoo
Morepork
Rifleman
Rock Wren
New Zealand pipit
Fernbird
Tomtit (both (sub-) species)
New Zealand Robin (both (sub-) species)
Whitehead
Yellowhead
Brown Creeper
Grey Gerygone
Stitchbird
Bellbird
Tui
Kokako
Saddleback (both (sub-) species)

Less than 100% success:
Northern brown kiwi - 85% seen, but heard on the nights it was not seen
Little spotted kiwi - 70% seen, but heard on the nights it was not seen
Okarito brown kiwi - 85% seen, but heard on the nights it was not seen
Great spotted kiwi - 0% seen, but heard 100% (when tried for)
New Zealand storm-petrel - missed on one tour, plus one trip cancelled due to weather
Pycroft's petrel - Only tried for on 2 trips - both successful. Not seen in Hauraki Gulf
Australasian bittern - 80%
Fiordland crested penguin - 100% October - January. Not tried for after January

A detailed itinerary is available upon request, please email us to express your interest. Or perhaps you like the look of this tour but would like to change dates or make adjustments to the schedule, we are more than happy to make such changes, where possible, upon request.