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Story: Bird migration

Birds that migrate away from New Zealand

Common name Species
* Some stay in New Zealand
Long-tailed cuckoo Eudynamys taitensis
Shining cuckoo Chrysococcyx lucidus
Banded dotterel* Charadrius bicinctus
White-fronted tern* Sterna striata
Australasian gannet juveniles Morus serrator
Most albatrosses and petrels  

Only a very small number of New Zealand breeding land or shore bird species migrate overseas after breeding. But among the seabirds, most albatrosses and petrel species do so.

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Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Christina Troup, Bird migration – New Zealand’s migratory birds, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/9521/birds-that-migrate-away-from-new-zealand (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Christina Troup, published 2 March 2009.