The Fierce and Chatty Pied Stilt — Written By Te Korowai o Waiheke Team Member

Aotearoa is home to a number of spectacular birds; a great number of them being a special group called the ‘waders’. These are birds with long, thin legs that inhabit our estuaries, wetlands, and marshes. From our critically endangered plovers to curlews that migrate all the way from the arctic, our coastlines are home to a wide variety of these particular and sometimes extravagant little birds.

One most commonly seen at beaches and reserves all over the country is the poaka or pied stilt. Unlike their endangered cousins, the kakī, who live on the braided riverbeds of Te Waipounamu, there are many poaka all over Waiheke. From small family groups to a flock of hundreds, these fierce and chatty birds dart around mangroves and mudflats on spindly little legs while hunting for insects and larvae.

There’s something that most shorebirds and waders share and that’s making small and inconspicuous nests. Poaka build their nests on the ground out of mud, often surrounded by water and only a few centimetres high! The bowl of speckly eggs will be incubated for 28 days by both parents and the result is a handful of fluffy chicks that are up on their feet searching for invertebrates after only a couple of days. They soon also sport bright red legs and a dashing black cape like their parents, making them quite conspicuous against the grey and green of the mangroves.

- Written and captured by Field Team Technician Charlie Thomas

Pied stilt/poaka