Pukeko by @Thorvald (El Thorvaldo)

A Side 7 exclusive! The Australasian swamphen, known by the Maori as pūkeko, is estimated to have arrived in New Zealand roughly 1000 years ago; its red colouration marked it a symbol of royalty to the Polynesians, and it was kept as a revered pet. Different Maori tribes claim to have introduced it in their ancestral voyages, although there are suggestions it may have migrated under its own power. Both Samoan and Maori folklore hold it as a mischief-maker, and "pūkeko" is an idiom for a stubborn or annoying person.

This shot does not do credit to the bird's colours: the throat and chest are a vibrant blue, and the beak and forehead a bright red.

Original photo taken May 2014.