Like our placenames in Aotearoa, much of our wildlife has Maori names and some species have interchangeable Maori and English names.
I happen to be a big fan of the Maori names of New Zealand wildlife. I'd far rather say ruru than morepork, or tui than parson bird (does anyone actually say "parson bird" anymore?). I love that weta punga means "god of ugly things".
What I love the most is that many of our native birds are named for onomatopoeic reasons. A kea is easily recognised for its call often echoing across alpine valley floors or skifield carparks. So too is kiwi, for anyone who has had the privilege of hearing them calling at night.
Whio means to whistle, and that perfectly encapsulates the call of the male blue duck. Probably my favourite Maori bird name is kokako. When I started filming Meet the Locals, I was struggling with some of my Maori pronunciation. Sometimes I'd get it, sometimes my Southland roots would betray me. In particular with kokako, which was coming out KO (rhyming with "foe") - KA - KO. It wasn't until our editor (a fluent speaker of te reo) took me aside and said, "look, the kokako is named for its beautiful voice", that I clicked. If any of you have heard the soulful, haunting call of the kokako, you'll understand what I mean... From that point on, my pronunciation problems were pretty much solved, and I grew to love the music of the Maori language, especially when it came to our native birds.
The good folk at Zealandia have come up with this video to describe the native birds found there and to test/teach you on whether or not you know the Maori names. It's a great wee vid, and I found I have plenty of names to learn. Have a look below... How did you get on? Did you know many of them? What's your favourite Maori wildlife name?
ALSO: Fan of this blog? Voting has also opened in the NetGuide Web Awards so click here. Scroll to the bottom of the page, look for 'best blog' category and enter this link http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/in-our-nature
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My favourite new maori name is Putaputaweta: a tree favoured by pururi cattipilars, who leave their tunnels in the trunk behind for weta to move into. Thus putaputaweta is a tree you put weta in ;)
I love piwakawaka :-)
I love the kererū. I love the sound of his wings and the way a tree (puriri one of his favourites) will bow under his weight
korimako is probably my favourite.
Yes agree we should phase out the old colonial names for birds and plants. I think it's happening slowly. Agree about the macrons.
Hearing them every night I have to say that morepork is far more onomatopoeic than ruru, though somehow ruru fits the bird better when you see them. Likewise the kiwi we hear don't say "kiwi" to me - it's more of a screech. And weka definitely don't say "weka". I like fantail for its fluttering descriptiveness but kereru and tui couldn't be called anything else.
Tautoko Emma #2
Sadly, the best blog vote will probably go to the most read one, rather than the best one. For me, the sounds the birds make rarely match their name.
I'm a fan of piwakawaka also, said it yesterday when I saw one whilst out with friends and had my friend comment on my use of the maori name especially as it was coinciding with maori language week. I just like saying it!
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I love the names ruru and tieke. Much better than morepork and saddle back! Also think we could do better with macrons (the lines over vowels which lengthen their sound) for Maori words - like in news stories and blogs for a start :)