Order) Passeriformes
Family) Meliphagidae
Species) Native Bird
Conservation Status) Not Threatened
Length) 30 cm
Weight) 125 g (male), 90 g (female)
Other Names) parson bird, tūī, kōkō, koko
Threats) Possums (There are no possums on Waiheke) ,Stoats and Rats
Identification
The Tui is a iridescent blue-green honeyeater with two curled white feather tufts on the throat. Locations found on Waiheke are around flaxes feeding off nectar.
Tūīs are only native to New Zealand. They are one of the country’s most iconic birds. They are a boisterous, medium-sized, common and widespread bird of forest and suburbia.
They look black from a distance, but in good light tūī have a blue, green and bronze iridescent sheen, and distinctive white throat tufts (poi).
The upper back and flanks are dark reddish brown with a bronze sheen, the nape and sides of the neck have filamentous white feathers, and there are two unusual curled white feather tufts on the throat (poi). Small white shoulder patches on the upperwing show prominently in flight, but are usually concealed when perched. The bill and feet are black, and the eye dark brown.
The sexes are alike, but the male is larger.
They are usually very vocal, with a complicated mix of tuneful notes interspersed with coughs, grunts and wheezes. In flight, their bodies slant with the head higher than the tail, and their noisy whirring flight is interspersed with short glides. In flight, tūī maintain contact and harass raptors with a repetitive scream.
Tūī are notoriously aggressive, and will defend a flowering or fruiting tree, or a small part of a large tree, from all-comers, whether another tui or another bird species. They vigorously chase other birds away from their feeding territory with loud whirring wings.
Tūī play a very important role in the dynamics of New Zealand forests because they are one of the most common pollinators of flowering plants, and also disperse the seeds of trees with medium-sized fruits.
Breeding
Eggs are laid from September to January.
The nest, built by the female, is a rough bulky structure of twigs and sticks, lined with fine grasses, high in the canopy or subcanopy.
The clutch is 2-4 white or pale pink eggs, marked with reddish-brown spots and blotches.
Chicks are initially fed only by the female, but later the male helps to feed them.
Food
Tūī diet varies depending on the seasonal availability of nectar and fruits.
Their preferred diet is nectar and honeydew, and they will often shift to, or commute daily or more frequently to, good nectar sources, such as stands of puriri, kowhai, fuchsia, rewarewa, flax, rata, pohutukawa, gums and banksias.
In the breeding season, tūī supplement their nectar diet with large invertebrates such as cicadas and stick insects
In the autumn, medium-sized fruit such as wineberry, kaikomako, mahoe, ngaio, rimu or kahikatea, make up much of the diet.
In winter, flowering gums, banksias, puriri, and tree lucerne are important nectar sources, along with sugar-water feeders in gardens.
Waiheke Locations
Tenax Flaxes Bushes – They feed on the nectar when large flaxes (Tenax) are flowering, there is a abundance of flaxes on Waiheke.
Birds of Paradise Flowers – When flowering they feed of the nectar.
Kowhai, Pohutukawa’s and Puriri Trees – Waiheke has an abundance of Native trees near road sides, beach sides and Reserves.
Waiheke Properties – Many waiheke residents leave out sugar water for birds and bees to feed on.
How to make sugar water is simply mix up a sugar solution by dissolving 100g (approx. ½ cup) of white sugar in 1 litre of warm water. Once that has cooled down pour into the feeder and hang in a tree.
Tui’s are flying birds so they can really be anywhere on Waiheke but not just Waiheke they are all over New Zealand, these are just areas I’ve spotted them and photographed.
Gallery
