Aotearoa New Zealand has eleven official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this fourth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking Lake Waikaremoana Track.
A lake surrounded by forest
The Lake Waikaremoana Track is a 46 km track that runs along the western shore of Lake Waikaremoana, Te Urewera, inland from Wairoa (northern Hawke’s Bay). The track is usually walked in 3 or 4 days, with the trail ends reached by road or water taxi. The lake is almost entirely surrounded by dense native forest dominated by tall rimu, tawa, and tawhairaunui | red beech on the lake edge, and tawai |silver beech on the Panekire Range.
Formerly managed by the Department of Conservation, the former Urewera National Park, including the Lake Waikaremoana Track, was returned to Ngāi Tūhoe in 2014 as part of the Tūhoe Claims Settlement Act. The track is currently closed (2023) pending repairs to track infrastructure.
Birds of the lake
We started our (December 2016) walk at Hopuruahine at the north end of Lake Waikaremoana, after a 25-minute water taxi ride from Onepoto, along the length of the tranquil lake.
Water birds seen from the boat included Paradise Shelduck | Pūtangitangi, New Zealand Scaup | Pāpango, Black Swan | Kakīānau, Little Shag | Kawaupaka, and Black Shag | Māpunga.
Forest birds
Soon after after starting our walk, we encountered a ‘kiwi-proof fence’ running across the base of the Puketukutuku Peninsula. The fence was built to prevent juvenile North Island Brown Kiwi | Kiwi-nui dispersing from the 750 ha peninsula, where stoats are controlled to low densities. Unfortunately, the site is several kilometres before the first hut that we stayed at, and we did not encounter kiwi on our walk.
A feature of the walk was regularly hearing calls of both of New Zealand’s cuckoo species: Shining Cuckoo | Pīpīwharauroa and Long-tailed Cuckoo | Koekoeā. They are the only migratory landbirds in New Zealand, and spend the winter on tropical Pacific islands (I wish!).
Both cuckoo species lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species, and leave the hosts to rear their chicks. Around Waikaremoana, their hosts are Grey Warbler | Riroriro (for Shining Cuckoo) and Whitehead | Pōpokotea (for Long-tailed Cuckoo). The Long-tailed Cuckoo is also a nest predator that eats eggs and chicks of other species. Probably for this reason, Tūī are very aggressive towards it, and we saw several Long-tailed Cuckoos being pursued by Tūī.
North Island Robins | Toutouwai were encountered frequently along the track, along with their smaller Tomtit | Miromiro cousins. Other endemic birds near the lake shore included Kererū | New Zealand Pigeon, Kākā, Bellbird | Korimako, and Whitehead | Pōpokotea.
We encountered a few Riflemen | Tītitipounamu near the lake, but found them more frequently in the higher altitude tawai |silver beech forest on the Panekire Range. This was also the only place we recorded Yellow-crowned Parakeet | Kākāriki.
Endemic birds seen or heard on the Lake Waikaremoana Track
- Score 4 Kākā, Rifleman | Tītitipounamu, Whitehead | Pōpokotea
- Score 3 Kererū | New Zealand Pigeon, Bellbird | Korimako, Tūī
- Score 2 Paradise Shelduck | Pūtangitangi, New Zealand Scaup | Pāpango, Long-tailed Cuckoo | Koekoeā, Yellow-crowned Parakeet | Kākāriki, Grey Warbler | Riroriro, New Zealand Fantail | Pīwakawaka, Tomtit | Miromiro, North Island Robin | Toutouwai
- Score 1 Shining Cuckoo | Pīpīwharauroa, Little Shag | Kawaupaka, New Zealand Kingfisher | Kōtare
- Endemic bird score = 40 points
- Ranking = 9th out of 11
- Additional possible endemic birds (not seen or heard by me): North Island Brown Kiwi | Kiwi-nui, Ruru | Morepork, New Zealand Falcon | Kārearea.
Why do North Island Great Walks have low endemic bird scores?
All three North Island Great Walks had lower endemic bird scores than the seven South Island Great Walks plus the Rakiura Great Walk. The main reason for this is that the North Island has fewer deep endemic bird species than the South Island. There are no Kea or Rock Wren | Pīwauwau in the North Island, and there is only a single species of New Zealand creeper (Whitehead | Pōpokotea), while the South Island has two species (Mohua | Yellowhead and Brown Creeper | Pīpipi). I also failed to record kiwi on the North Island Great Walks, while encountering them on five of the southern tracks.
An additional factor is that the three North Island routes are all in the island’s interior, away from the coast. Tracks that include a mix of forest and coastal habitats have a greater diversity of birds overall, with many ‘shallow endemic’ coastal and marine species adding to the overall endemic score.
The scoring system (and the difference between deep endemics and shallow endemics) is described in the first blog in the series: Birds of the Great Walks of Aotearoa New Zealand.
For up-to-date information on track opening, and hut and campsite bookings on the Lake Waikaremoana Track, see the Department of Conservation webpage Lake Waikaremoana Track.
Other blogs in this series
- Birds of the Great Walks of Aotearoa New Zealand
- Birds of the Whanganui Journey ‘Great Walk’
- Birds of the Tongariro Northern Circuit
- Birds of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track
- Birds of the Routeburn Track
- Birds of the Paparoa Track
- Birds of the Hump Ridge Track
- Birds of the Rakiura Track
- Birds of the Kepler Track
- Birds of the Milford Track
- Birds of the Heaphy Track
[This blog was updated in November 2024, following addition of the Hump Ridge Track to the Great Walk network.]
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