Acanthisittidae New Zealand Wrens

These tiny New Zealand endemics are built like diminutive pittas, with long, thin legs and toes, stubby tails, and compact bodies supporting large heads and slender bills. The Rifleman is a bird of forests and the Rockwren of alpine rocks and shrubs. They move with the flitting energy of kinglets, often disappearing into a crevice or tree cavity in search of insect prey. They vocalize often, with high-frequency songs and calls that are sometimes beyond the limits of human hearing. Relicts of an ancient lineage, with two of the four known species extinct since the arrival of humans to New Zealand, they serve to remind us just how much avian diversity has gone extinct.