The 8000th image: southern black-backed gull nest containing an egg and young chick, Awarua Bay, January 2015. Image: Glenda Rees, NZ Birds Online.
Colin Miskelly, 8000 images on New Zealand Birds Online, Te Papa blog
The Te Papa-hosted website New Zealand Birds Online has passed a significant milestone, with the 8000th image loaded late on 29 March.
Most of the images on the website have been sourced from amateur or semi-professional photographers, who have generously supported the project from the outset. At the time of the launch in June 2013, the website held an archive of 6592 images supplied by 254 different photographers, most of whom were members of Birds New Zealand. Once the site was live, it attracted the attention of a much wider pool of photographers, and we now have images supplied by 335 different people.
The 8000th image was loaded by Southland-based photographer Glenda Rees, and was of a southern black-backed gull nest photographed at Awarua Bay in January this year. Glenda has contributed 169 images to the website, including the master images for southern brown kiwi, swamp harrier, bar-tailed godwit, ruddy turnstone, black stilt, fairy tern, yellowhead and brown creeper. She was also the first photographer featured in our ‘meet the photographers’ blog series in late 2013.
There have been some wonderful images loaded on the website in the last couple of days, including new master images for southern brown kiwi (by Glenda Rees), buff-breasted sandpiper (by Ian Southey), and pomarine skua (by Les Feasey).
Thank you to all of our photographers for their ongoing support, and for continuing to load or send in their images. The image archive is one of the real strengths of New Zealand Birds Online, and it is fantastic to see the archive continuing to grow in quality and diversity, as well as the impressive quantity.
