BLOG about PAINTING

Wow. That was an ugly few days. But I'm feeling a lot better, so it's time to add another blog item.

I have to comment on another of New Zealand's weird and wonderful birds, this time the Pukeko.

Pukeko

It looks like a big, gawky chicken. You can see them all over the fields, stalking along a bit like herons. They do fly - sort of. Native New Zealand birds didn't need to fly because there were no ground-based predators, no mammals. The Pukeko's current scourge is the Australasion or Swamp Harrier, a relatively recent arrival (mid-1800s).