Monday, 20 September, 2010I love the sounds of spring in our area. The tuis come in down from the hills or wherever it is that they overwinter, to feast on the spring flowers. First, there's this pink flowered tree. Then, they move onto the kowhai. My parents have a kowhai, and the air is filled with the song and flit-flit-flit of tuis flying back and forth for several weeks. One particular male tries to keep the tree as his personal domain, chasing off any intruders (including sparrows - he doesn't seem to understand that they are seriously not interested in nectar, however delicious it might be!). I watched, amused, a few weeks back as two males did a little song and dance for a quiet wee girl. They puffed themselves up, and chortled away for her, before one did a little flying dance with her.
Here they are - two puffed up male tuis...you can just see the tail of the female hidding behind the tree trunk on the left.Tuis are so hard to take photos of though! They flit and dart, and are constantly on the move. You think you've just lined up for a good one, only to find you've taken a photo of a blurry half-wing - the tui has already moved onto the next juicy flower! So I'm glad to have finally got something that actually proves we have tuis around...
1 comment:
Tui's are known to be aggressive - we have not had tui's yet, but still hear the bellbirds - the kowhai is just about to bloom, and it has a lot more buds this year, so no doubt we will have some soon!! :-)
Blessings
M
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