The Tui
The New Zealand Tui gorging on the tasty kowhai flower nectar. Both the tui and the kowhai are endemic to New Zealand. Usually when you see a tui it appears to be predominantly black with white feather tufts on it's throat. The tui typically feeds upside down and when it's back catching some light "it shows it's real colours". On it's back it has brown/bronse, turquoise, purple and blue iridescent sheen. The top of it's head appears green-ish and it has red eyes.
They are usually very vocal, with a complicated mix of tuneful notes interspersed with coughs, grunts and wheezes. Tui 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. Tui have a display flight, in which they fly upwards above the canopy, and then make a noisy, near-vertical, dive back into the canopy. Tui 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.
Worth enlarging.
The Tui
The New Zealand Tui gorging on the tasty kowhai flower nectar. Both the tui and the kowhai are endemic to New Zealand. Usually when you see a tui it appears to be predominantly black with white feather tufts on it's throat. The tui typically feeds upside down and when it's back catching some light "it shows it's real colours". On it's back it has brown/bronse, turquoise, purple and blue iridescent sheen. The top of it's head appears green-ish and it has red eyes.
They are usually very vocal, with a complicated mix of tuneful notes interspersed with coughs, grunts and wheezes. Tui 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. Tui have a display flight, in which they fly upwards above the canopy, and then make a noisy, near-vertical, dive back into the canopy. Tui 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.
Worth enlarging.