Don's Milk

as part of this year's New Zealand Garden Bird Survey 🐦

Pīwakawaka, fantail, also know by some iwi as tirairaka, tīwaiwaka or tīwakawaka

Known for its friendly ‘cheet cheet’ call and flittering flying antics, the pīwakawaka / fantail is one of the most common native birds in Aotearoa.

Māori believe this bird is a messenger from the spiritual world, sometimes responsible for the presence of a departing loved one. This is captured in the narratives of Maui the great hero of the Pacific. Maui thinking he could overcome death and secure immotality by successfully passing through the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-po, who tried to enter the goddess’s sleeping body through the pathway of birth. The pīwakawaka, warned by Maui to be quiet, began laughing and woke Hine-nui-te-po, who promptly killed Maui.

Known for its cheeky antics, the whakataukī ‘he tou tīwaiwaka’ means ‘ants in your pants’ and refers to people who have trouble keeping still!

📖 This information was shared by Manaaki Whenua Kairangahau – ecologist Puke Timoti.

This illustration is by Johannes Gerardus (J.G.) Keulemans, a Dutch artist, and comes from Buller’s “A history of the birds of New Zealand”. J.G. Keulemans did not visit New Zealand but lived and worked in England, where he illustrated many ornithology books. His work is known for its accuracy and detail.

"One of the cutest beings on this planet, an opossum, also one of the most misunderstood. They are marsupials, they do not transmit rabies and are indispensable for pest control, they are naturally docile and gentle, and when scared they show their teeth and hiss to appear menacing, but when they are terrified they don't "play" possum - they quite literally faint from fear - so do not harm them!"

Credit: Rhonda Lynn