NZ Writer and Illustrator
Mary Taylor
Old Blue – the Rarest Bird
in the World
Scholastic NZ (first published 1993 – redesigned and updated edition 2014)
$19.99pb 32pp
ISBN 978 1 7754 3237 1
Themes: Chatham Islands Black Robins/ Conservation
programmes/ Survival
In
the 1970s there were only five Black Robins left in the entire world and only
two of them were females. Then into the frame stepped Dr. Don Merton from DOC
(Department of Conservation) who, with his wildlife team set up a rescue and
recovery programme. Thanks to this team whose hard work and many adventures
which included abseiling the birds down the side of sheer cliffs, by 2012 the
New Zealand total of Black Robins had grown to 256
birds.
Mary
Taylor first wrote about and drew the images for this incredible story back in
1993 so it is a real pleasure to see this brand new edition 21 years later.
Although it looks like a picture book the text is more suitable for confident
readers although quite young people would enjoy having it read aloud.
If
you go to the Chatham Island airport you will see a plaque erected to Old Blue
’saviour of her species’. She laid more eggs and mothered more chicks than any
other Black Robin. When she died in 1983 newspapers throughout the world printed
the headline Famous Robin Old Blue
presumed dead.
Go
to: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-black-robin-a-chatham-island-story-1989
for an interesting documentary about the robins.
Year
4 up/ Age 8 up
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