Pukeko

I like the pukeko. I think it's the tail flipping thing they do. It looks suspiciously like they're flipping you off when they do that, and they do it all the time.

They're as common as muck, but I only had one opportunity to get close enough to photograph one. My first shot was a total failure. I could not get my camera to work properly. I thought I was aiming with pinpoint accuracy, but the pukeko kept sliding out of focus. I was using a zoom, and thought maybe the fence was in the way, so I took one picture, and then as the pukeko moved off into the field I got more focussed pictures. They are not wonderful pictures, but at least I got some.

It was only when I got that first picture onto the computer that I realized that my camera had done quite a good job of focusing after all. It was just focusing on the wrong bird.



Where did that little guy come from?

Here are two more pictures of the pukeko. The first one shows it with its tail down.


And in this one it is flipping you off.