Silvereye

cute ... !

Yes, it's not clear whether they were in NZ and unrecorded, or whether they came across on a storm front.

HiLorilong time no see? In a way you are correct, historically. According to my book the Silvereye introduced itself to New Zealand in 1856. It is of course possible that there were simply no records of it prior to 1856 and prior to 1839 it was occupied mainly by Maoris and a handful of European explorers/missionaries etc. so probably very little was recorded of it's bird life. Even in this day and age there are probably very few, if any, people who have seen every single bird species ever recorded there. A note in my book says I only saw them in North Island, I will have to check my pictures again. Since they tend to stick to large flocks outside the breeding season it is quite possible that a large flock could get caught in a strong north-westerly airflow and carried the 1,000 or so miles across the Tasman sea, or would they more likely have gone via the chain of islands near the 30ºS lattitude (Norfolk Is?).

Nice Malcolm. If I've got my facts right, this little bird species made it to New Zealand only recently, and presumably under it's own (wind aided) power. With humans responsible for so many species introductions we sometimes forget that animals are still occasionally migrating to new territories, just by chance.