pipiwharauroa

Theme week -- birbs. Which is to say, birds with interesting names, starting with this mouthful:


pipiwharauroa (PEE-pee-fay-ray-oo-roh-ah) - n., a migratory cuckoo of Australasia and Melanesia with metallic green-gold plumage.


This is specifically the New Zealand name (from the Maori name) for what elsewhere in its range (Australia, New Guinea, and islands around these) is known as the shining cuckoo or the bronze shining-cuckoo. It's the smallest of the cuckoos, and like most of them, it doesn't nest but rather lays its eggs in the nest of a slightly smaller bird for another mother to raise. Rather pretty birb, too:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.