Whistler arrived as an adult female falcon. She had been found in Windwhistle, Rakaia Gorge, with an eye injury.

Falcon’s are extremely visual hunters, and primarily rely on eyesight to find prey. In fact the eyesight of a kārearea is eight times better than a human, meaning they would be able to see a rabbit 4.5 rugby fields away!

Due to her injured eye, she was unable to successfully hunt and had become very underweight and dehydrated as a result of starvation.

After some rehabilitation she was brought back to a healthy weight, but unfortunately her eye could not be saved.

Because she was unable to be released back to the wild, Whistler joined our breeding programme and raised her first three female chicks in November 2020.

Whistler was named by our past aviary manager Diana Dobson as a reference to Windwhistle where she was rescued from.

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BRONZE - Liz and John Burgess, from Havelock NZ

SILVER - Gregory Webb, Nelson NZ

GOLD - Pirtek Marlborough, from Blenheim NZ

If you would like to adopt Whistler - head to our Adopt a Falcon page.