Recent developments in photographic equipment and software has contributed to a proliferation of stunning wildlife images. Natural History curator Colin Miskelly describes how high-quality digital images have revealed previously overlooked or unrecognised ecological interactions between two ancient species that have been in Aotearoa for tens of millions of years. OurRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten 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 eleventh and final blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered whileRead more
Photography curator Athol McCredie reflects on a famous photograph discovered in 2020 amongst our huge Spencer Digby / Ronald D. Woolf portrait collection of negatives.Read more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten 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 tenth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten 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 ninth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten 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 eighth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten 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 seventh blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Humanities Technicians Cassandra Bahr and Alexander Gordon share their behind-the-scenes work with the Spencer Digby/Ronald D Woolf collection at Te Papa: what research, registration and rehousing looks like, and how you can help out.Read more
Aotearoa New Zealand has many great walks. However, as of 2023, only ten of them qualify as capital-letter 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 initial blogRead more
The 15,000th image loaded on New Zealand Birds Online was of an adult male North Island kokako | Kōkako on Tiritiri Matangi Island, taken by Oscar Thomas. Oscar is a university student and author of the 2020 book A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Here, he answers a few questionsRead more
New Zealand photography historian William (Bill) Main passed away in March at age 88. Here Curator Historical Photography Lissa Mitchell reflects on some aspects of his career, and Geoffrey Batchen and John B Turner share their thoughts on the loss of Bill.Read more
Mana Island, near Wellington, is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s conservation success stories. Farmed for more than 150 years, the island is now covered with forest that is overflowing with an abundance of endemic birds, lizards and insects. Using pairs of images taken 50 years apart, natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly describes how and why the island was transformed from a farm to a thriving sanctuary.Read more
How do we identify one transparent film support from another more dangerous one? This was a challenge posed to staff working with the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf Collection of photographic negatives. Conservator Photography Caroline Garratt describes the issues they face and the technology that helps them.Read more
New Zealand photographer Ans Westra passed away on 26 February 2023 at age 86. Here curator of photography Athol McCredie reflects on some aspects of Westra’s work. Ans Westra was born in the Netherlands and lived in New Zealand from 1957. She settled in Wellington, working at first in aRead more
The internet’s primary function as a repository for cat pictures is well established, but what about our pre-digital cat photos? Doesn’t the world deserve to see them as well? Imaging Technician Ish Doney describes the housing of the Digby/Woolf photographs collection and uses the opportunity to share some favourites.Read more
