{"id":11388,"date":"2017-04-10T18:37:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T06:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/?p=11388"},"modified":"2021-09-11T20:25:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T08:25:52","slug":"sucked-into-a-bird-vortex-by-a-couple-of-cushions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/photos\/sucked-into-a-bird-vortex-by-a-couple-of-cushions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sucked into a bird vortex by a couple of cushions."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sucked into a bird vortex by a couple of cushions<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
\n

There I was walking down the road minding my own business when my eyes fell upon a couple of bird cushions in a shop window.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0294-05.jpeg\"
\n(Photo taken in Newtown, Wellington New Zealand)<\/em><\/p>\n

They were pretty cool cushions; one of them depicted a Tui, a well known and iconic New Zealand bird. But the other one had a long curved beak and was not a bird I\u2019d ever seen.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0294-03.jpeg\"<\/p>\n

Turns out those two birds have very different back stories \u2013 one good and one not so good.<\/p>\n

The Tui<\/h2>\n

\"1200543Tui-D700-4284-3-web.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Image \u2013\u00a0http:\/\/www.wildlight.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n

We often get a few Tui in our garden making freaky noises.<\/p>\n

\u201cTui are boisterous, medium-sized, common and widespread bird of forest and suburbia. They look black from a distance, but in good light tui have a blue, green and bronze iridescent sheen, and distinctive white throat tufts (poi). They are usually very vocal, with a complicated mix of tuneful notes interspersed with coughs, grunts and wheezes. In flight, their bodies slant with the head higher than the tail, and their noisy whirring flight is interspersed with short glides\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/nzbirdsonline.org.nz\/species\/tui<\/a><\/p>\n

The New Zealand Woodpecker (Huia)<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/collections.tepapa.govt.nz\/objectdetails.aspx?irn=653240&term=huia<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out the curved beak bird on the other cushion was a NZ woodpecker (Huia), a species that along with several other iconic NZ bird species, was hunted into extinction by the Maoris, who had a bit of a thing for wearing their tail feathers. The last one ever seen was in 1907.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe huia was the largest of the five New Zealand wattlebird species. It was a striking large songbird, mainly black with long white-tipped tail feathers. Female and male huia had dramatically different bill sizes and shapes; this was the most extreme sexual bill dimorphism of any bird species\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/nzbirdsonline.org.nz\/species\/huia<\/a><\/p>\n

There are no photos of Huia around because they have been extinct for 110 years, but here is another Tui pic:<\/p>\n

\"tumblr_npzjj5mNjM1ta4govo1_1280.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Image –\u00a0http:\/\/petitpoulailler.tumblr.com\/image\/122105038755<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sucked into a bird vortex by a couple of cushions There I was walking down the road minding my own business when my eyes fell upon a couple of bird cushions in a shop window. (Photo taken in Newtown, Wellington New Zealand) They were pretty cool cushions; one of them depicted a Tui, a well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[40,47,20,66],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20219,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/new-zealand\/the-view-from-the-top-deck\/","url_meta":{"origin":11388,"position":0},"title":"The view from the top deck","date":"April 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my favourite places to take photos around town is from the top deck of a double decker bus Sitting in the front seat up top I feel like king of the road looking down on my subjects And despite the fact that I'm taking photos through glass windows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ART BY FROT"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image3A27390_chroma2-02-01.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11391,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/art\/street-art-in-da-hood\/","url_meta":{"origin":11388,"position":1},"title":"Street art in da hood","date":"April 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Street art in da hood Yesterday I was doing posts about birds and cushions. 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I'm listening to birds tweeting and watching boats go by.","rel":"","context":"In "NEW ZEALAND"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_6150b.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10834,"url":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/new-zealand\/ever-totally-missed-a-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":11388,"position":5},"title":"Ever totally missed a season?","date":"March 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever totally missed a season? If the missing season was winter, probably nobody would really mind. But Wellington New Zealand has just missed summer, and gone straight from spring to winter (yes, we have missed autumn as well). We have never experienced anything like it. I'm certainly not a supporter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NEW ZEALAND"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frot.co.nz\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}