Stamp features Northland bird

Malcolm Pullman took this photo of the highly-endangered fairy tern at Waipu Estuary. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Photographer’s image used off website

New Zealand Post might not appreciate how many hours Malcolm Pullman spent lying around in sand dunes at Waipu Estuary to get a great shot but the national stamp agency can pick a good photo.

A photo Mr Pullman took of a fairy tern, which he described as "probably the most endangered bird in the world", is among five of New Zealand's most endangered seabird species featured on NZ Post's recently released special conservation stamp issue.

There are known to be only about 45 survivors of the little tern. "And it chooses to hang out here in Northland," Mr Pullman said.

The seabird which Maori called tara-iti lives and breeds at only five sites, all in Northland.

A photo-journalist and conservationist, Mr Pullman's interest in photographing birds developed many years ago.

"Then a couple of years ago I was invited to join a new website, New Zealand Birds Online, overseen by Te Papa," Mr Pullman said. "This photo was chosen by NZ Post off that website."

Mr Pullman said he has given many images to the Department of Conservation (DoC) and wildlife protection trusts for their use and has donated all rights to the photo on the stamp to DoC.

As well as the Birds Online photo archive which Te Papa manages on behalf of DoC, the museum houses the country's biggest collection relating to birds and eggs.

"It is the New Zealand bird authority," he said.

The other birds in the New Zealand Endangered Seabirds stamp issue - a mint set of five gummed stamps costing $9.70 - are the Antipodean albatross, Chatham Island shag, black-billed gull and Chatham Island taiko, or petrel. The stamps also feature a scientific sleight of hand, the thermochromic ink reflecting the disappearing nature of the subjects. When the stamps are warmed up, a silhouette of the bird disappears.