Central Region - Grey District

Listed north to south:

Marble Hill, Lewis Pass
Croesus Track, Paparoa Ranges
Cobden Lagoon, Greymouth
Camerons Beach, Hokitika/Greymouth

Marble Hill, Lewis Pass.
The Marble Hill and the Lake Daniels track area has signicficant bird life in beech forest habitat. The track leading into Manson Nicholls Memorial Hut takes 2-3 hours walking from the car park. This area has reports of hosting some rare species including mohua/yellowhead ,kakariki/red-crowned and yellow-crowned. Alongside the birds, pekapeka/long tailed bats and the rare native epiphytic plant mistletoe are found in the area, making this a unique eco-system. Many of the forest dwelling birds on the West Coast can be sighted or heard here. 

Croesus Track, Paparoa Ranges
An 18km track from Blackball to Barrytown, plays host to many forest dwelling birds, and has a significant roroa/great spotted kiwi population. There is currently a project taking place to protect kiwi in this area, along with whio/blue duck in the Moonlight Creek; for more information about these projects visit the Paparoa Wildlife Trust website; www.pwt.org.nz. This forest features many common forest birds, below is a sample of some birds which may be spotted or heard from the Croesus track. 

Cobden Lagoon, Greymouth

Cobden lagoon is on the north side of the Grey River approximately 1km inland from the river mouth. It is home to many types of birds; puteketeke/Australian crested grebe, karoro/black-backed gull, koau/pied shag, tarapunga/red-billed gull, parekareka/spotted shag and kotuku/white heron. It also contains a small lake where other species can be found such as matuku/Australasian bittern, papango/New Zealand scaup and kuruwhengu/New ZealandAustralian shoveller. The most commonly seen birds in this wetland are; papango/New Zealand scaup, kuruwhengu/New Zealand shoveller, mallard duck,  pukeko, parera/grey duck, black swan and putakitaki/paradise shelduck. There is also a possibility of seeing white-faced heron, koau/black shag and poaka/pied stilt in this lagoon. The main part of the lagoon is split into two sections by a stopbank. The section between the river and floodwall hosts several hectares of mudflats where the wading birds will be found. 

Camerons Beach, Hokitika/Greymouth
Korora/Blue penguins are the worlds smallest penguins. They have blue upper parts, are mainly nocturnal on land, and are very vocal at night from April to August. At sea, only head and a small part of their back is above water when not swimming. They can be found in many locations along the West Coast; on Camerons Beach (approximately halfway between Hokitika and Greymouth on SH7) monitoring sites have been set up by the West Coast Blue Penguin Trust to carry out surveys and research. For further information or to volunteer with monitoring during nesting season (in winter and early spring) see the website www.bluepenguin.org.nz or contact the trust at PO Box 22 Charleston, Buller.

For more information on these or any other birds please see the West Coast birding directory.