Read about my home town of Kaikohe, Northland, New Zealand
The New Zealand Kiwi - a flightless, nocturnal bird. New Zealand's national symbol.

This strange looking and behaving bird is New Zealand's national symbol and identity. Everywhere in the world, Kiwi is New Zealand, or a New Zealander.

Strange that New Zealanders who have spread their wings around the world should choose to be represented by a flightless nocturnal bird.

The kiwi is the smallest member of the genus Apteryx which includes the ostriches, emu, rhea, and the extinct New Zealand moa. It is named after it's shrill call - kee-wee kee-wee.

The kiwi is a nocturnal bird and relies on it's very keen sense of smell through the nostrils on the end of it's long beak (one third of the body length) to find food and sense danger. It has very limited sight, and although it has wings, it cannot fly. They live in forests or swamps and feed on insects, worms, snails, and berries. They also lay the biggest egg for body weight of any bird - up to 20% of it's body weight. They usually lay 2 eggs in a burrow and the smaller male sits on these eggs. They hatch in about 11 weeks.

There are several different species of kiwi spread over the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The most numerous of these is the Brown Kiwi which inhabits a large area of the North Island.

While the real kiwi bird is hard to find, the kiwi as a symbol is everywhere. On our stamps and coins, on all sorts of manufactured and food products, in the toy shops, on flags, everywhere, all over the world.

Stamps and Coins

The kiwi has been featured on New Zealand stamps since 1898. I do not have an original stamp to show you, but only this copied from Pim's Stamps of New Zealand Catalogue.	The earliest real stamp I can show you is this 1 penney Kiwi from the 1936 - 1943 pictorial set.
The next stamp featuring a kiwi came out in 1959 for the Boy Scout Pan-Pacific Jamboree	Here is a more recent stamp - a $10 stamp released in 1989 as part of an Endangered Bird Issue.

These are the 2 coins of the current New Zealand set that feature the kiwi.

 

Here are some links to kiwi sites with additional information.

• The first of these is The Kiwi Recovery Programme
  http://www.kiwirecovery.org.nz/
• The Department of Conservation, Mt Bruce
  http://mtbruce.doc.govt.nz/kiwi.htm
• Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, Christchurch
  http://www.willowbank.co.nz/
• Maori Legend - How The Kiwi Lost His Wings
  http://www.maori.org.nz/tikanga/purakau/kiwi.htm

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Updated July 7, 2008

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