The kārearea/New Zealand falcon is one in every of my favourite birds.
Considerably recognized, I’d nonetheless say it’s a reasonably underrated species right here, not usually 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. And so they’re attractive 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 possibly can’t assist however preserve an eye fixed out searching for them.
‘Ngā Whenua I Haroa E Ngā Kāhu – The Lands Soared Over By Hawks’
Kārearea developed 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 one in every of solely 4 that hunt within the forest. Due to this, it has quick wings in order that it could possibly maneuver simply. The delicate feathers are strong and simply bounce again as a substitute of breaking whereas looking in dense bush.
They’ve additionally developed to have the ability to hunt out within the open, too, with the enduring falcon stoop-dive transfer. Half the dimensions of the swamp harrier (which confuse many), you received’t probably see kārearea feeding on roadkill – they hunt dwell. In addition they shortly flap their wings as a substitute of gliding.
Whole pocketrockets.
Wanting up shut, you possibly can see that they’re majestic creatures.
Kārearea have lovely broad wings that attain practically 100cm in size; they’ve lengthy yellow legs made for catching small prey. A protracted tail helps with maneuvers as they hunt, and so they have essentially the most lovely yellow, brown, cream, and gold feathers. Males are smaller than females – which I really like.
There are additionally three totally different ecological varieties of kārearea: Bush, Japanese, and Southern.
- Bush falcons usually happen within the North Island, south of the Waikato, to the highest of the South Island. They’re smaller.
- Japanese 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 quite a scrape. Generally they nest on the bottom, and in the event you come anyplace close to them once they’re on the nest, you’ll comprehend it. They may intention in your head and aggressively assault you, and so they don’t miss. Greatest 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 often, 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 right this moment. And there’s nonetheless numerous work to be accomplished round defending them.
As a result of they usually nest on the bottom, this implies they’re inclined to launched predators, particularly the eggs and the chicks. There are additionally movies of cats coming 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, growth impacts, being shot by people, wind farms, and energy line electrocution.
Usually the massive energy traces within the huge 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 the Japanese 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 Project is a community-led mission that goals to develop a science-based conservation strategy for kārearea in tussock grassland mountain ecosystems like up at Cardrona. They’re at present in 12 months three out of 5 of analysis.
That is really comparable throughout most of New Zealand; there actually simply isn’t numerous details about kārearea.
Not a lot is thought concerning the kārearea that dwell in alpine environments, so numerous analysis must be accomplished to grasp them and assist them. There aren’t any present quantitative research of kārearea on this space. Within the conservation world, you might want to absolutely perceive the place and dangers an animal faces earlier than you possibly can 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 how one can 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 have to work with the farmers and locals to assemble information and observe.
You possibly can solely catch kārearea to leg-band them when they’re on the nest as a result of, properly, they assault you.
Many points round kārearea are preventable primarily based on what we’ve realized so removed from the analysis right here with the Cardrona Kārearea Conservation Venture. The most important difficulty? Mammal predation. Cats. Stoats. Possums. Hedgehogs.
This sounds painfully apparent, however I’m going to dig in in any case. Positive a much bigger or grownup hen has the possibility to battle off predators. However for a species to outlive, that signifies that the eggs after which chicks must fledge efficiently. That is the massive downside.
You won’t suppose 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 had been used to report the nests final 12 months and caught a hedgehog repeatedly attacking a nest with 4 ten-day-old chicks whereas the mom tried to battle 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 once we trigger the nests to fail. A bunch of youngsters right here in Albert City had 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 proper path towards determining how one can shield these unimaginable hunters. So many individuals, particularly down right here round Wanaka and Cardrona, have rallied collectively to assist this analysis. Many contribute 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 consists of 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 lovely?
