Birds of a Feather

Photo by Laurent Guiader, 2005.

New Caledonia has the most magnificent birds - they are almost as stunning as those I've seen in Australia. We can see them both in the wild (as well as in our front garden) and at the Parc Forestier (home of the beauty pictured above), a nature reserve nestled in the hills overlooking Nouméa. We visited the Parc Forestier in November and were taken with the many species of birds and endemic plants - they purport to have 700 animals of 125 different species, including flying foxes and kagus, New Caledonia's symbol and national bird (which is land-bound, never having learned how to fly, never having had to - perhaps because it barks like a dog).