Today’s Doodle celebrates New Zealand’s Waitangi Day, a recognition of the signing of the nation’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, on this day in 1840. To commemorate the country’s rich collection of bird fauna, the artwork depicts three of the nation’s endemic birds: the iconic flightless Kiwi in the centre, with the Tūī and the Kererū on either side.
The islands of New Zealand are home to around 168 different native birds, and over half of these species cannot be found anywhere else in the world. With the Tūī, prized by the Māori people for their imitation skills using its two voice boxes, the Kererū (whose unique flying noises are a distinctive sound in New Zealand’s bush) and the Kiwi (the world’s only bird with nostrils at the end of their long bill) New Zealand’s avian community has developed unique characteristics from evolving on the isolated South Pacific island.
Look up into the sky, or down to the ground, and enjoy these wonders of biodiversity.
Happy Waitangi Day, New Zealand!
Early concepts by artist Alyssa Winans
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