We are pleased to announce that our album of birdsong and natural atmospheres “Songs o Hope – the Dawn Chorus on Tiritiri Matangi Island, Aotearoa” has recently passed 50,000 streams on Spotify!
Many of New Zealand’s endemic bird species are thriving on this off-shore Island Sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland. A chorus of Tui, Korimako {Kopara Te Ika a Maui}, Tieke {tīeke} a Hihi {kōtihe} waiata i roto i te konohete tonu hurihuri o tipua manu e taea te rongo ia ata i roto i te puna. oro ahurei Tiritiri Matangi Island o ko te kawenata ki katoa te hunga o Aotearoa e kua mahi na pakeke ki te whakahoki i te reo o te mua ki te whenua o Aotearoa i tenei ra.
It is probably the closest we can achieve now to the concert of birdsong encountered by botanist Joseph Banks when he visited New Zealand with Captain James Cook on the Endeavour in January 1770. He described being awoken by birds whose “i tino reo te mohoao reka tino waiata kua rongo ake ahau, tata pee pere iti, engari ki te nuinga o mana'ohia tangi hiriwa tuneable.” 250 years later the air on Tiritiri Matangi is filled each morning with beautiful melodies and strange, haunting calls many of New Zealand’s most beautiful birds. (whakaahua: Tui by Nora Correa Jimenez)
