Kereru - New Zealand Wood Pigeon

Photo by Robert Sanson

The New Zealand native Wood Pigeon (Kereru / Kukupa in Maori) is a large fruit eating pigeon. It is one of the largest species of pigeon in the world. They have suffered declines in many areas of New Zealand due to predation by possums, stoats and rats. Their nests are flimsy affairs made of a few twigs up in trees, and they only lay one egg at a time. Once the young hatch and are a few days old, they are left alone for hours at a time which leaves them exposed to predators.

I captured this photo of an adult collecting sticks for its nest with my Olympus E-1 camera and Olympus 50-200 mm F2.8-3.5 lens. Settings were ISO 200, f4.0, 1/320 s