2014 Endangered Seabirds.

New Zealand’s unique marine environment is home to a diverse range of seabirds, giving New Zealand the title of ‘seabird capital of the world’. That was a title from the NZ Post web site, personally I've never heard it before. Five of our most endangered seabirds are featured on this unique stamp issue that uses thermo chromic ink to reflect the disappearing nature of these precious birds.

Putting aside the rather gimmicky use of the thermo chromic disappearing birds, these stamps are nice to look at. Good pictures, a larger format and the part word 'dangered' in red. What lets them down is the other information/writing in the stamps are at times hard to see because of similar coloured backgrounds.

                                    

      80c – Antipodean Albatross.                                                   $1.40 – New Zealand Fairy Tern.

The Antipodean Albatross is a large albatross that breeds almost exclusively on the Auckland and Antipodes Islands. These beautiful birds with their massive wingspans, are masters of low-energy flying and forage over the continental shelf edge and deep water areas.

The New Zealand Fairy Tern is the most threatened of New Zealand’s birds. Its tiny population of around 50 birds is seriously threatened by introduced predators, human disturbance, habitat loss and coastal development.

                  

$2.00 – Chatham Island Shag.                                     $2.50 – Black-Billed Gull.

Chatham Island Shag is restricted to the Chatham Islands as their name suggests. This large black and white shag, is a conspicuous bird along the rocky coastlines. Colonies and roost sites are located on rocky headlands and islets and there is one colony in the Te Whanga Lagoon.

Black-billed Gulls are strongly colonial and breed predominantly on braided rivers from the coast to the headwaters. The species is found throughout New Zealand but is most common east of the southern divide in the South Island and in Southland. 

$3.00 – Chatham Island Taiko.

The Chatham Island Taiko, one of the world’s rarest seabirds, has a population is estimated at less than 200. The only known breeding site is at the southern end of main Chatham Island. The bird was known from only one specimen captured at sea in the middle of the South Pacific. Interesting how two of these rare birds are only found in the Chatham Islands. 

 Each of the five stamps features an image of the endangered bird with a smaller silhouette pair in the background, printed in thermo chromic ink. If you warm up face of the stamp (with your finger, for example), the two birds turn translucent and disappear, mimicking the decline of the populations of these creatures.

I have included the small video above to show you the effect of warming the stamps. It is a rather neat idea but I do question why they are doing that to a postage stamp. The answer is sales. More and more we are seeing stamps being developed with the collector market in mind rather than for postal use. I am wondering if one day this blog is going to witness the end of postage stamps as we know them.

The two First Day Covers feature the five stamps (above) and the miniature sheet (below).

The Miniature Sheet featuring all five stamps.