Look! Pukekos!

One of the charming local birds is the pukeko*.  It's a mostly-flightless bird with lots of personality.  I say mostly-flightless because they're kind of like chickens... they CAN fly, but they don't do it well and can't go very far.  Fifty years ago, they were nearly endangered, but have made a great comeback.  Now they live all over in the bush, and venture into the suburbs as well.  They like to take up residence in backyards that have apple trees:  eating the apples on the ground during the day and roosting in the trees at night.  And noisily chasing each other.  They're fun. 

I saw a family of them gallivanting around in the field by work.  I scurried over to the fence to watch them cavort and to take photos with my phone.  One of my coworkers laughed and laughed that I would be so amused by something so simple.  Like a tourist.

I managed to take the world's worst photo of one of the little fellas.  It's so bad it looks like an expressionist painting, with no photoshop needed.  Ha.  But at least you can see his red head, blue/black body, white rump, and spindly legs.

A power company here has a commercial with pukekos and I LOVE it.



*POO-kih-ko