Matuku moana

Also known as Egretta sacra (the Reef Heron), this is "an uncommon native" New Zealand shorebird. There is a white phase which is described as a "rare Pacific vagrant", and all New Zealand resident birds are uniformly slate-grey with a long heavy horn-coloured bill and relatively short legs of a yellow-green colour. Just like this one.

I have not previously seen one of these birds; at least not consciously.

The breeding season runs from September to March, and early in the season the adult birds develop long plumes on the back with sorter ones on the nape and foreneck. In large, I fancy that such plumes may be able to be seen.

They are usually solitary, or at most in pairs. The feeding stance is described as "hunched, almost horizontal". The tide was rapidly approaching high tide, and this bird was one of the last of any species to be searching around the rocks by the point separating our beach from Snells Beach. I don't think it was successful while I watched.

Bird fanciers will be rewarded by looking large.

Short day at the office today, so an early trip north to Snells and the chance to chill out a bit (me) and write lots of words (S).