Philesturnus carunculatus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The South Island saddleback or tīeke (Philesturnus carunculatus) is a forest-dwelling passerine bird in the New Zealand wattlebird family which is endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. Both the North Island saddleback and this species were formerly considered conspecific. The Department of Conservation currently has the South Island saddleback listed as At Risk--Declining.
The South Island saddleback was first formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the starlings in the genus Sturnus and coined the binomial name Sturnus carunculatus. The specific epithet carunculatus is Latin for a small piece of flesh, hence wattles. Gmelin based his description on the "wattled stare" that had been described and illustrated in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham has examined a specimen in the collection of the Leverian Museum in London that had come from New Zealand. The word "stare" is an archaic word for a starling. The South Island saddleback is now placed with the North Island saddleback in the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 2 | Fiordland National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orana Wildlife Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a South Island Saddleback sighting in Rakiura National Park on a given day, based on 832 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 16th most-seen of the 80 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March, May and December–January
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a South Island Saddleback in Rakiura National Park on a given day, against about 30% in July and September, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most South Island Saddleback sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 parks where we can rate South Island Saddleback sightings, Rakiura National Park has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Fiordland National Park (New Zealand, under 5%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the South Island Saddleback that you can see in Rakiura National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Tūī (about 90%), New Zealand Bellbird (about 80%) and New Zealand Fantail (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the South Island Saddleback is recorded against all the birds logged in Rakiura National Park (832 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.
