Eileen Mayo

Four Eileen Mayo bird paintings were exhibited together in the exhibition 'Bird Land: Te Kāhui Manu', with this label:

Four small, endemic shorebirds—tara iti (fairy tern), tūturiwhatu (New Zealand dotterel), ngutu pare (wrybill), and tuturuatu (shore plover)—are brought together here, each associated with exposed coastal and braided-river margins. All four are birds of open, shifting environments: beaches, sandspits, estuaries and riverbeds. Their nesting sites are often highly visible and vulnerable, making them especially sensitive to disturbance and predation. While differing in habitat preference and behaviour, they share a close dependence on these edge landscapes and on intensive conservation management for their continued survival.

(Bird Land: Te Kāhui Manu 15 August 2026 – 8 February 2027)