Kereru or NZ Native Wood Pigeon

On our weekly photograph outing this morning, we visited a new estuary area at Kaiteriteri, that was once not much better than a rubbish dump.
Today, to our delight, it was cleared out and full of  birds. Multiple kingfishers were sitting on and fishing from, overhead wires. A little shag  on a culvert at the side of the road was drying its wings . Quail ran down the road. Herons were fishing, ducks were swimming and tuis warbling. On the other side of the road there were pied stilts and oyster catchers. Best of all were the 5 or 6 kereru, noisily feasting on flowers and new leaves and not at all bothered by us being there.

Sometimes after eating, the kereru is so full, it finds it difficult to fly and I think that must have been the issue today.

They are big, beautifully coloured and noisily flying birds. I heard its voice today for the first time, and it was almost laughable to hear that soft pigeon-like Kuu from such a blunderbuss of a bird.

There are 3 more in the extras. The final extra is to show the distinctive 'white apron'  on the front of the bird.