Inside Middle Earth: Fantail / Piwakawaka
May
18
2013
This little fellow is the “Middle Earth”, aka New Zealand, version of the “fantail”, also known as piwakawaka (also tiwakawaka, amongst other variations) in Maori.
Fantail; credit, B Miller
The fantail was one of the mythological companions of the Maori demi-god, Maui; is often encountered in the bush, but also in domestic gardens, especially before rain; and is believed by some to be a harbinger of death if it flies into the house (this may or may not be connected to its role in the Maui cycle.)
Comments
Nice photo 🙂
We have tons of these in our garden although to date the only death a fantail has foretold by flying into the house has been its own… our kitty is a rather enthusiastic (and distressingly skilled) huntress 🙁
On the plus side, she hasn’t brought in a bird for months as the rodent population is her current entertainment of choice.
We need a rodent hunter, too–they’ve burgeoned since the eq and cats are a great natural control mechanism.