Fiona Carswell with her early flowering kowhai tree that attracts many bellbirds. Photo: Katy Gosset/RNZ
It took just over a week but in winter 2021 New Zealanders counted more than 260,000 birds across 133 species: key data that will be used to assess the state of the country's bird population.
The latest results from the long running New Zealand Garden Bird Survey show more sightings of fantail, or pīwakawaka, tūī, and kererū since 2009.
Meanwhile the silvereye population, which had been declining, appears to have stabilised.
But the survey, based on one first conducted in Britain, only exists because thousands of citizen scientists take to their gardens every year to help count the birds.
Katy Gosset joins them and finds that the project also brings other benefits for participants.
