Michael Szabo is a long-time Wellington resident and writer and well acquainted with the region’s wildlife. He is editor of Birds New Zealand magazine and a contributor to New Zealand Birds Online. He was principal author of Native Birds of Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2022), Wild Encounters: A Forest & Bird guide to discovering New Zealand’s unique wildlife (2009), and has written for New Scientist, New Zealand Geographic, the Sunday Star-Times and Wilderness.