Pipipi

Brown Creeper
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Pachycephalidae
Genus: Mohoua
Species: M. novaeseelandiae
Binomial name
Mohoua novaeseelandiae
(Gmelin, 1789)

The Brown Creeper (Mohoua novaeseelandiae), also known by its Māori name, Pipipi, is a small passerine bird endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. They are specialist insectivores, gleaning insects from branches and leaves. They have strong legs and toes for hanging upside down while feeding.[1]

Brown Creepers and humans

In the late 19th century when flocks of Brown Creepers were still abundant, they would occasionally descend on slaughteryards in sheep stations when food was short to feed on the meat of butchered animals.[2]

References

  1. ^ Worthy, Trevor H., & Holdaway, Richard N. (2002) The Lost World of the Moa, Indiana University Press:Bloomington, ISBN 0-253-34034-9
  2. ^ Walter Lowry Buller, edited by E.G. Turbott,"Buller's Birds of New Zealand", Whitcombe and Tombs, 1974