Birds / NZ Fantail
Information for Juniors
NZ Fan Tail
- Maori name is Piwakawaka – the messenger
- Busy flitting around seeking flying insects for dinner
- A friendly cheerful bird – Not shy and enjoys your company
- Listen to its call! It is a metallic cheep with a single note
- Found all over NZ
What does it sound like?
Information for Junior Secondary
NZ Fan Tail
- Found all over NZ. There are 4 species
- Their colour of the body tends to be pied orange grey and black
- Busy flitting around seeking flying insects for dinner
- Moths, flies, beetles and spiders are their favourite food and small berries supplement the diet
- Not shy and enjoys your company
- Its call is a metallic cheep with a single note
- Has a compact cup shaped nest for its 2-3 chicks
- Eggs are speckled grey and brown, hatched in summer after 2-3 weeks
- The male shares the nesting role
- The nests are made of fine vegetation – mosses, dried wood fibre and dried grasses tightly woven together with cobwebs
- Maori name is Piwakawaka – ‘the messenger’
- A protected species
What does it sound like?
Information for Senior Secondary
NZ Fan Tail
- Found all over NZ. There are 4 species
- The order is Passeriformes
- Family name Rhipiduridae
- Their colour of the body tends to be pied, orange grey and black. The North Island fantail tends to have whiter in colour
- Busy flitting around seeking flying insects for dinner
- Moths, flies, beetles and spiders are their favourite food and small berries supplement the diet
- Not shy and enjoys your company
- Its call is a metallic cheep with a single note
- Has a compact cup shaped nest for its 2-3 chicks
- Eggs are speckled grey and brown, hatched in summer after 2-3 weeks
- The male shares the nesting role
- Eggs and chicks are not immune from predators; rats, stoats and hawks
What does it sound like?