Dusky woodswallow seen for the first time in New Zealand

© Satoshi Kakishima and Tomoe Morimoto

Japanese bird-watchers Satoshi Kakishima and Tomoe Morimoto on their first visit to New Zealand, spotted a Dusky Woodswallow on Stewart Island

A Japanese couple who made a rare sighting of a bird on their first trip to NZ have had their sighting officially confirmed.

Japanese bird spotters Satoshi Kakishima and Tomoe Morimoto spotted the Dusky Woodswallow while on Stewart Island realising it was something different.

Birds New Zealand Southland region recorder Phil Rhodes said in September last year he got an email from a Japanese couple about their unusual sighting.

"I advised them that it was a dusky woodswallow and that it had never been seen in New Zealand and that it was a special bird."

Rhodes asked the couple to put forward an unusual bird report through to Birds New Zealand.

Because it's so rare it has to go through a committee who decide whether it is exactly what this person thinks it is.

The Japanese couple were very grateful and very amazed they had found a new species in New Zealand, Rhodes said.

"It was just an off chance that they were in the right place at the right time and had the foresight to take a photo of it."

A few people looked around since the sighting but couldn't find it, Rhodes said.

The sighting was confirmed a couple of days ago by Colin Miskelly from Te Papa museum and that it has been accepted as a new species to New Zealand, Rhodes said.

It's great for birders and birding, he said.

"It's common in Australia but it must have got blown over here on it's migrationary route."

It would survive here for a while but because it was the only one of it's species it would just die out, he said.