When I went for a walk around the pond at the Forest and Bird reserve last weekend I could hear lots of Piwakawaka (NZ Fantail) calling in their happy, friendly, chirpy manner.
This little one flew down on to the path in front of me and proceeded to hop towards me.
As you can see in this final image the little bird was on the move. They are rarely still for more than a second.
What I cannot show you is this bird, barely an arm’s length from me, on a branch of Kawakawa. My camera batteries died at just the wrong moment. Our Fantails are busy, flitty and flighty birds and despite its friendliness and courage this one did not wait for me to replace the batteries with fresh ones.
ordinarygoodness 
Arrgh…batteries! Fantails are so unafraid of us. Lovely little birds.
I did go “arrrgh” inside and hoped my wee friend might wait but no. At least I know where to find them now 😉
The fantails are far and away my favourite New Zealand bird – they are just so friendly and cute! There seem to have been more around this year – yesterday afternoon I could hear and see them just the other side of the sliding door onto my verandah, and when I stepped outside there were 3 of them about 3 feet away from me! They didn’t seem concerned, as I was (VERY concerned!), about the cat on the verandah chair just underneath them, but I encouraged them to move away lest a disaster occur and one or more of them fall foul of swift claws! They certainly put a smile on my face with their cheerful twitter and friendly nature 🙂
Like you there do seem to be many fantails around this year which is just great. They are great wee birds……we are cat free now so that is one less worry for the birds in the garden.
well done – they’re hard to catch…
This one came to me which was a delight but then the batteries died…..
I noticed that – Murphy’s law
What a lovely little bird! 🙂
You and Colin would love Fantails. Oh and Purdey would too:-(
Aww.. such pretty birds! 🙂
adorable! You did well getting those pics! They are always too fast for me!
This did surprise me! They are fast wee darlin’s