The feeding behaviour of three young captive kea was studied over a period of eight weeks following their emergence from the nest. The gradual development of independent feeding over this period reflects continuing changes in the relation of the parent and young with each other and with available food objects. The development of species-typical feeding behaviour involving beak-foot co-ordination was not complete by the 19th post hatching week and appears to require a prolonged period of experience with food objects.
From November 1966 to January 1967 I spent eight consecutive weeks on North Meyer Island in the Kermadec group as a member of the Ornithological Society of N.Z. expedition. Breeding habits of wedge-tailed shearwaters were studied through courtship, egg-laying and early incubation. A flood disrupted incubation and destroyed a part of the study area. Nest-associated fauna and ectoparasites were collected.
Five-minute counts of birds at stations 200 m apart were easier to make and no less accurate as an index of numbers than were counts made while walking slowly through the same forest. The precision and errors of the technique are discussed.
This paper reports observations made over 4 months on two species of introduced congeneric mynahs in W. Viti Levu, Fiji. Habitat preferences of the two species were investigated and the relative use of foraging sites in one habitat – agricultural land – was observed. Differences in foraging behaviour, feeding associates and gregariousness are pointed out. It is concluded that the two species have a wide ecological overlap but do, in general, occupy different niches in man-modified habitats.
Nestling foods of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and mynas (Acridotheres tristis) from an orchard, in North Island, New Zealand, are compared to determine the extent of overlap in the use of food resources during the breeding season.
A field study of birds was made by some members of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand in two areas of the Fiji group, the Nausori Highlands of Viti Levu and the isolated island of Vatulele, in August–September 1972. A table shows numbers of each species recorded in a particular piece of cutover forest in the Highlands together with estimated density and habitat utilization. Land birds, seabirds and migratory waders were recorded at Vatulele Island and a list of species recorded, with relevant observations, is given. One species new to Fiji, the spine-tailed swift (Chaetura caudacuta), is recorded.