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?

Our 21-day tour boasts a species list of 155+ species on most trips, including around 65 endemic breeding species and 17 tubenose species. The following stats give an idea of our success rates over the past 5 years for finding the important (mostly endemic) species (note that list does not include all endemics seen during our tours).

100% Success : Southern brown kiwi, yellow-eyed penguin, NZ grebe, Buller's & Hutton's shearwater, black, Westland, Cook's & Pycroft’s petrel, Stewart Island, King & spotted shag, paradise shelduck, blue duck, NZ scaup, NZ falcon, weka, takahe, South Island & Variable oystercatcher, black stilt, NZ plover, banded dotterel, wrybill, red-billed gull & black-billed gull, white-fronted, fairy & black-fronted tern, NZ pigeon, kaka, kea, red-crowned parakeet, yellow-crowned parakeet, long-tailed cuckoo, morepork, rifleman, rock wren, NZ pipit, fernbird, tomtit (both sub-species), NZ robin (both sub-species), whitehead, 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 - 80% 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 1 tour, plus 1 trip cancelled due to weather
Pycroft's petrel - Only tried for on 2 trips - both successful. Not seen in Hauraki Gulf
Australasian bittern - 90%
Fiordland crested penguin - 100% October - January. Sometimes found after January
Yellowhead - 95%+ missed on 1 tour

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.

This guided tour visits one of the most isolated and infrequently birded parts of New Zealand. The Chatham Islands are home to twelve endemic bird species and a host of endemic subspecies. As well as the high degree of endemism there is the possibility of seeing a wide range of seabird species and getting a real taste of this unique and beautiful Island group during this tour. Don't miss out on this rare opportunity to visit and bird the Chatham Islands!

Being situated at 44 degrees South in the middle of the Southern Ocean, our schedule will very much be dictated by the weather. However, we are currently planning to arrive the afternoon of Day One and have a chance to settle into our accomodations quickly and get out and explore locally in the afternoon. It will be almost impossible to not see our first island endemic whilst doing so. Day Two is reserved for our full day pelagic, and we plan to head out from Owenga and south to cruise past several off-shore islands and stacks to look for landbirds, whilst stopping and chumming for seabirds along the way. Our targets are the Star Keys, South East (Rangatira) to look for shore plover, the Pyramid (only breeding site for the Chatham albatross), Mangere & Little Mangere for Forbe's parakeet, and then back in to land in the early evening. On Day Three we plan to fly to Pitt Island and do a scenic tour of the island, seeing several endemic sub-species including Chatham Island tomtit and Chatham Island tui, as well as Chatham warbler and others. We hope to visit Caravan Bush, a restoration project where Chatham petrel and Chatham snipe have been reintroduced. Day Four is tentatively planned for our afternoon/early evening half-day pelagic with local birding in the morning, and Day Five is spent birding in the south-west of the island, hopefully visiting an exciting restoration project run and funded by local Chatham Islanders, Bruce & Liz Tuanui. Day Six will also be spent birding Main Chatham Island, revisiting spots and is really a day up our sleeve to cope with weather should it alter plans. Day Seven we fly back to the Mainland.

Expected endemic species ( # sub-species) -

Chatham albatross
Common diving petrel #
Chatham Island blue penguin #
Chatham Island shag
Pitt Island shag
Chatham Island oystercatcher
New Zealand shore plover
Red-billed gull #
Parea (Chatham Island pigeon)
Chatham Island red-crowned parakeet #
Forbe's parakeet
Chatham Island pipit #
Chatham Island warbler
Chatham Island fantail #
Chatham Island tomtit #
Chatham Island tui #

This guided tour, leaving from Auckland and ending at the ship in Tauranga includes two full day pelagics and visits the famous Tiritiri Matangi Island and Miranda area.

Our first day will be an early start, heading straight up to get onto a boat for our full day Hauraki Gulf pelagic. Our aim is to get fantastic views of New Zealand storm-petrel - the recently rediscovered species thought to be extinct for 150+ years! You can read about the rediscovery here - essentially made during a Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ pelagic off of Whitianga (the site for our second full day pelagic). We generally are able to chum and have these birds right at the back of the boat with often spectacular views and photographic opportunities that you are not likely to get unless in a smaller boat. We also aim to see white-faced storm-petrel, Cook's and black petrel, Buller's and fluttering shearwater, amongst a host of other species - read our trip reports from previous pelagics in this area.

The following day we head out to the famous Tiritiri Matangi Island - one of New Zealand's most amazing sanctuaries. We will spend the day catching up with endemic land birds such as brown teal, takahe, red-crowned parakeet, kokako and saddleback, stitchbird, whitehead, tui, bellbird, and New Zealand robin during the day and then head out in the evening to hopefully find little spotted kiwi and morepork. We stay the night on Tiritiri Matangi and enjoy the dawn chorus in the morning.

In the morning we will leave Tiritiri Matangi and make our way to Miranda in the Firth of Thames, one of New Zealand's prime shorebird areas and an excellent location to look for wrybill and New Zealand plover (dotterel) amongst thousands of arctic shorebirds. We will spend time here and at other locations during the day to maximise our birding opportunities and will stay the night in Miranda. This will give us the opportunity to spend a bit of time wader watching again in the morning, before heading across to Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula. Our aim will be to start our second pelagic out of Whitianga around mid-morning. Our main target and reason for the late start will be the often elusive Pycroft's petrel which is easiest to see near it's breeding grounds. We will also encounter common diving petrel, white-faced storm petrel, Black and Cook's petrel and hopefully little and Buller's shearwater during the day, and then see Pycroft's petrels in the late afternoon as they head back to their breeding grounds on the Mercury Islands. Again check out our trip reports from previous pelagics.

The following day we meander down the very scenic coast to meet the ship in Tauranga early afternoon, before departure late afternoon. We will stop and bird along the way.

Expected highlights -

We expect a list of around 90 species, including 32 endemic breeding species, including...

Little spotted kiwi, NZ grebe, Buller’s shearwater, black, Pycroft’s and Cook’s petrels, New Zealand and white-faced storm-petrel, brown teal, NZ scaup, Takahe, New Zealand plover (dotterel), wrybill, black-billed gull, NZ pigeon, red-crowned parakeet, morepork, NZ fernbird, stitchbird, kokako, and saddleback. We hope to see around 15 species of tubenose during the tour.