While walking around St. Helens tonight, I was passing a bayside restaurant when I noticed that a small flock of birds were milling around on the lawn, indifferent to nearby humans. I didn’t know what they were, so I slowly crept up to them and managed to get a few photos and video with my phone.
These are Tasmanian nativehens (aka Tribonyx mortierii aka piyura), a fascinating little flightless bird. They went extinct on the Australian mainland, but are thriving in Tasmania. The invasion of white folks actually benefitted them, as they quite like feeding off modern agriculture. Also, humans killed off their primary predator, the thylacine (!).
The ones I saw were about the size of chickens. Their eyes are a brilliant red, striking in the golden-hour sunlight. They were very content with pecking for food in the grass, to the point that they wandered quite close to me.
