Christmas cards often show tables groaning with such fare, along with the robins and snow, but increasingly we can see pohutakawa and pukeko alongside the traditional images.
Estimated to have been in New Zealand for approximately 1000 years, numbers of the native pukeko have increased as forest land has decreased.
Daddy didn't think pukekos lived so far south, and we thought for a moment that it might be some other sort of bird; some southern creature built to withstand the cold.
Well-documented cooperative species with joint-paternity clutches include the acorn woodpecker, pukeko, Tasmanian hen, dunnock, Galapagos hawk, trumpeter, and stepmother breeding units of the scrubwren.
I love the way one side of your mouth curls up higher than the other when you smile. The crinkles at the corners of your eyes remind me of the pukeko's tiny footprints, spiralling closer and closer to heaven.