The kārearea/New Zealand falcon is certainly one of my favourite birds.
Considerably identified, I’d nonetheless say it’s a fairly underrated species right here, not typically getting as a lot consideration as different flashier birds – cough, cough, kea. You might need seen them featured on the $20 observe.
Small but packing a punch, kārearea are spectacular birds. They’re additionally fairly distinctive in some ways. Solely present in New Zealand, these powerhouses can fly over 200km/h and hunt prey greater than themselves. They usually’re beautiful to admire.
Mixing in simply, it’s straightforward to overlook recognizing them out within the wild. However as soon as you understand what to search for, you’ll be able to’t assist however preserve an eye fixed out on the lookout for them.
‘Ngā Whenua I Haroa E Ngā Kāhu – The Lands Soared Over By Hawks’
Kārearea advanced to hunt within the dense forest (earlier than we people burnt most of them down right here).
Out of the 38 complete species of falcons worldwide, the kārearea is certainly one of solely 4 that hunt within the forest. Due to this, it has quick wings in order that it could actually maneuver simply. The gentle feathers are sturdy and simply bounce again as a substitute of breaking whereas looking in dense bush.
They’ve additionally advanced to have the ability to hunt out within the open, too, with the enduring falcon stoop-dive transfer. Half the scale of the swamp harrier (which confuse many), you received’t probably see kārearea feeding on roadkill – they hunt dwell. Additionally they rapidly flap their wings as a substitute of gliding.
Whole pocketrockets.
Wanting up shut, you’ll be able to see that they’re majestic creatures.
Kārearea have stunning broad wings that attain almost 100cm in size; they’ve lengthy yellow legs made for catching small prey. An extended tail helps with maneuvers as they hunt, and so they have probably the most stunning yellow, brown, cream, and gold feathers. Males are smaller than females – which I like.
There are additionally three completely different ecological forms of kārearea: Bush, Jap, and Southern.
- Bush falcons usually happen within the North Island, south of the Waikato, to the highest of the South Island. They’re smaller.
- Jap falcons are bigger and paler, starting from Marlborough down into the southern finish of the South Island, preferring open, dryer habitats east of the Southern Alps.
- Southern falcons are intermediate-sized and dwell in Fiordland, Rakiura/Stewart Island, and down all the best way within the subantarctic Auckland Islands.
Usually my buddies that find out about kārearea find out about them as a result of they’ve been dive-bombed by them, particularly mountain biking in locations like Rotorua or round pine plantations.
They don’t construct nests however slightly a scrape. Generally they nest on the bottom, and when you come wherever close to them once they’re on the nest, you’ll understand it. They may goal on your head and aggressively assault you, and so they don’t miss. Finest to keep away from.
The kārearea are thought to fill the ecological predator hole, which might usually be occupied by a mammal predator – one more reason they breed on the bottom. Breeding begins in winter, and the chicks fledge on the finish of summer season. The chicks hatch within the spring. There might be as much as 4 chicks in a nest, however normally, it’s round two.
Now right here comes the unhappy half – however don’t fear; there’s nonetheless hope.
There are lower than 8,000 kārearea left in New Zealand in the present day. And there’s nonetheless lots of work to be accomplished round defending them.
As a result of they typically nest on the bottom, this implies they’re inclined to launched predators, particularly the eggs and the chicks. There are additionally movies of cats getting into kārearea nests and killing the chicks as a result of the mom couldn’t fend them off. Different threats in addition to predation are habitat loss, disturbance, improvement impacts, being shot by people, wind farms, and energy line electrocution.
Usually the massive energy strains within the extensive open elements of rural New Zealand make good perches.
There are pockets of kārearea round New Zealand, together with down right here in Central Otago, the place I dwell in Wanaka. Right here we’ve got the Jap type of kārearea. In 2021 their standing was formally reclassified and worsened by DOC as they went from “recovering” to “nationwide susceptible.”
The Cardrona Kārearea Conservation Mission is a community-led undertaking that goals to develop a science-based conservation method for kārearea in tussock grassland mountain ecosystems like up at Cardrona. They’re presently in yr three out of 5 of analysis.
That is really related throughout most of New Zealand; there actually simply isn’t lots of details about kārearea.
Not a lot is thought in regards to the kārearea that dwell in alpine environments, so lots of analysis must be accomplished to know them and assist them. There are not any present quantitative research of kārearea on this space. Within the conservation world, it’s essential totally perceive the place and dangers an animal faces earlier than you’ll be able to create a rescue plan.
These are issues like what number of breeding pairs are within the space, what are the developments, and whether or not they’re profitable. Do the chicks and adults survive, and in the event that they don’t what occurred, then we will plan easy methods to shield them in future. Fortunately all of them appear to return to breed in the identical space yearly, making it considerably simpler to watch.
A lot of the kārearea habitat falls on personal land round this space, so you could work with the farmers and locals to collect knowledge and observe.
You’ll be able to solely catch kārearea to leg-band them when they’re on the nest as a result of, nicely, they assault you.
Many points round kārearea are preventable primarily based on what we’ve got realized so removed from the analysis right here with the Cardrona Kārearea Conservation Mission. The most important difficulty? Mammal predation. Cats. Stoats. Possums. Hedgehogs.
This sounds painfully apparent, however I’m going to dig in anyhow. Positive a much bigger or grownup fowl has the prospect to struggle off predators. However for a species to outlive, that signifies that the eggs after which chicks should fledge efficiently. That is the massive downside.
You won’t assume that seemingly innocuous critters like hedgehogs wouldn’t be a problem with falcons, however they’re. They eat the eggs and the chicks. Wildlife cameras have been used to document the nests final yr and caught a hedgehog repeatedly attacking a nest with 4 ten-day-old chicks whereas the mom tried to struggle it off. One other nest on the town failed as a result of somebody’s pet cat repeatedly raided it.
However the worst of all is after we trigger the nests to fail. A bunch of youngsters right here in Albert City have been by chance harassing a nest and taking photographs, disturbing the birds for a chronic interval. Even simply driving the birds away for lengthy sufficient signifies that the infants can fall sufferer to predation.
Regardless of all these troubles, what’s nice is that we’re on the suitable path towards determining easy methods to shield these unimaginable hunters. So many individuals, particularly down right here round Wanaka and Cardrona, have rallied collectively to assist this analysis. Many contribute right here to log kārearea sightings.
I don’t even have many photographs of kārearea within the wild as a result of they’re aren’t many. Most of those pictures got here from after I was on the North Island a number of years in the past in Rotorua with Wingspan, a belief caring for sick, injured, and orphaned kārearea.
This contains analysis, captive breeding, public consciousness work, and rehabilitating raptors again into the wild. The extra we contribute, the higher!
Have you ever heard of the kārearea earlier than? Aren’t they stunning?
