Tagged: rock wren

The world’s most ancient alpine songbird - Guest Work

Guest Author • Oct 13, 2018 •

• bird of the year,
• rock wren

Lucy Dickie We might be well known for being home to the world’s only nocturnal and flightless parrot (especially after an incident a few years ago involving Stephen Fry), but few people probably know that we can also claim the world’s most ancient alpine songbird–the pīwauwau, or rock wren. Rock wren are part of the family Acanthisittidae (the New Zealand … Read More

Tiny bird refutes ancient NZ drowning - News

John Kerr • Aug 01, 2016 •

• biogeography,
• ecology,
• geology,
• Oligocene Drowning,
• phylogentics,
• rifleman,
• rock wren,
• wren,
• wrens,
• Zealandia

A tiny native bird has challenged the theory that New Zealand’s ancient land mass was completely submerged millions of years ago. DNA analysis of New Zealand wrens, just published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, has untangled the birds’ family history as well as a larger mystery around the very origins of New Zealand. The research from the University of Adelaide focused … Read More