Rhipidura fuliginosa
Silhouette: Felix Vaux · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The New Zealand fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa) is a small insectivorous bird, the only species of fantail in New Zealand. It is also known by its Māori names, pīwakawaka, tīwakawaka or piwaiwaka, and the Chatham Island subspecies by the Moriori name tchitake; the common pied morph is also known as pied fantail (not to be confused with the Malaysian or Philippine pied fantails), and the uncommon dark morph is also known as black fantail (not to be confused with the black fantail of New Guinea). The species has been considered by many to be conspecific (the same) as the grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa) of Australia and New Caledonia; however, due to significant differences in its calls, many authorities now treat it as a separate species.
The New Zealand fantail was formally described and illustrated in 1787 by the Swedish naturalist Anders Sparrman. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa fuliginosa. The specific epithet... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egmont National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 2 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 3 | Arthur's Pass National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 4 | Abel Tasman National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 5 | Fiordland National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 6 | Aoraki Mount Cook National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auckland | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Willowbank Wildlife Reserve | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a New Zealand Fantail sighting in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park on a given day, based on 167 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 10th most-seen of the 36 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 80% of wildlife watchers report a New Zealand Fantail in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park on a given day, against about 40% in June, August–September and December, the lowest months.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most New Zealand Fantail sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate New Zealand Fantail sightings, Aoraki Mount Cook National Park ranks 6th at about 60%. The best odds are in Egmont National Park (New Zealand, about 80%), Rakiura National Park (New Zealand, about 70%) and Arthur's Pass National Park (New Zealand, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the New Zealand Fantail that you can see in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Chaffinch (about 90%), Eurasian Blackbird (about 90%) and Grey Warbler (about 80%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the New Zealand Fantail is recorded against all the birds logged in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park (167 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
