Friday, February 1, 2013

Perky Pukekos

This term for art Mrs Wistrand and the children are looking at birds.This week they read about, talked about and drew pukekos.


Pukekos are a bird native to New Zealand. 
They live in grasslands and swampy areas. 
Pukekos have short red beaks, long red legs and bright blue plummage (that's a fancy name for feathers!).
Here are our pukekos strutting among the flax bushes.



Being native to a place means you are an original inhabitant of that place.
Tell us about a bird or other animal that is native to your area.


You may enjoy this energy company advertisment featuring pukekos!



7 comments:

  1. Dear B4

    I am a second grader in Mrs. Yollis's class.


    We saw your post about birds. A native bird here is a golden eagle. It is a hunter and it eats rabbits other big birds and more. BIg birds can include morning doves, pidgins and lots of other big birds.

    Is there another native bird in New Zealand.

    Sincerely,

    Bryce

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  2. Hi Mrs. McKenzie,

    My name is Grace. I am in Mrs. Yollis' class.

    One bird native to our area is the hummingbird. They are brightly colored birds that eat nectar from flowers.
    They have long, thin beaks for sucking the nectar from deep inside flowers. They also eat insects that they find inside flowers or that they snatched out of the air. Their wings beat 60 to 70 times a second!

    What are some more native birds that live in your area?

    Sincerely,
    Grace

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  3. Dear Mrs. McKenzie,

    Hello, my name is Aashi, and I am from Mrs. Yollis' class. One of the native birds here are pigeons. Pigeons measure from 10 to 15 inches. They eat fruits, grains, and nuts.

    Does the pukekos do anything similar to pigeons?

    Your new friend,
    Aashi

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  4. Dear B4,

    Your native bird, the pukekos, looks like a very interesting bird.

    A native bird in America is the bald eagle. The bald eagle are one of the largest birds. There are probably 60 different kinds of eagles. Eagles are carnivores. During the day, eagles hunt for small animals.

    Have you ever heard of bald eagles?

    Cheep Cheep,
    Chl♥e

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  5. Dear B4
    What beautiful art work you have created! I just love those bold colours. It looks like you used oil pastels - is that correct? Did you paint your backgrounds or use yellow paper? It's really effective! I had never even heard of a pukeko before reading your blog, so it's good to learn something new. Where we live in the north of England, we have a lot of grouse moors. Grouse are a small game bird, and they live in the short heather and lay their eggs in nests on the ground. If you are walking through the heather, quite often you can be startled by a grouse raising out of the heather making a tremendous noise in an effort to distract you from finding its nest. They always make me jump! There is a Scottish Whiskey called Famous Grouse which has a picture of the bird on the bottle.
    Your blogging friend,
    Mrs Monaghan
    A Room with a View

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  6. Dear Bryce, Grace, Aashi, Chloe and Mrs Monaghan

    Yes, there are more birds native to New Zealand.

    The best known bird is the kiwi. It is brown and it can run fast. The kiwi is nocturnal - we know that means it finds its food at night time. The kiwi has tiny wings and cannot fly - it lives on the forest floor and makes it nest under logs and in the hollows in the ground under bushes. it had a very long beak and the nostrils are right at the tip of the beak.

    There are also weka and tuis and keas among others.

    @Grace
    We tried to flap our arms as quickly as a hummingbird but we couldn't do it as fast asa hummingbird. And we didn't fly!

    @Aashi
    In New Zealand we have a native pigeon. In Maori it is known as kereru. They eat berries in the bush.

    Thank you all for your comments!

    best wishes
    B4

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  7. Hi B4,
    I am a 2nd grade teacher in California. Our school is close to the beach and Disneyland!
    Your bird pictures are awesome! I have never seen one that looks like that before. I will share this post with my students so they can enjoy it also. The birds that I see most of the time are big black crows. They make a lot of noise, and don't seem very fun to me. Once, I saw a Great Blue Heron in my backyard, and that was very exciting. Have you seen a Heron?
    Your Friend,
    Miss Goold and the Top Chefs of 2nd Grade

    ReplyDelete