Among today's recipients in the King's Birthday Honours is wildlife conservationist, Colin O'Donnell, who becomes a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
O'Donnell has been honoured for his services to wildlife conservation and has helped save many indigenous bird species on the brink of extinction.
O'Donnell has spent the last 40-odd years tramping New Zealand's forests in search of birdsong.
"There's a bunch of silver eyes over that way, there's a fantail calling there, there's a black bird over there," he said.
"You get really in tune with what the birds and you don't even need to see them half the time these days."
He's dedicated countless hours to monitoring native species on the brink of extinction.
"When I began in my work... birds, in particular, were very threatened and disappearing. We were still logging a lot of forest and clearing land, we weren't really very aware of the effects of introduced predators on them," he said.
But over time, O'Donnell - a Department of Conservation principal scientist - said our knowledge of the environment has improved and the scale of the task has become less daunting.
"Forty-odd years down the track we're protecting habitats, we're doing control of predators over millions of hectares of NZ, the whole community's involved in conservation."
And while there are still plenty of climate-related challenges to overcome, he believes the future is bright.
"We can make a difference because I've seen the difference we can make through my career."
A career that on Monday received the recognition it deserved.
"I had to read the letter a few times to let it sink in, then I was kind of like, 'wow the honour'," O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell said his focus now is on imparting his knowledge to future generations in the hope they too can save more species from extinction.
