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These noisy, bustling, busy and strongly territorial birds have a distinctive whirring sound when they fly. They are a New Zealand favourite as they readily come into gardens especially for nectar bearing flowers. They are said to be our best song bird (though I think the kokako is in many ways superior - but few get to hear that very rare bird whereas the tui is much more common). There song is a widely scaled series of chortles, clinks, clonks, bells and trills, whistles and even resonant , almost harsh , screeches.
They are also great mimics and those living in or near town have been heard imitating cell phone rings, car sirens and doorbells.
NZ Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae)
One of the largest of the Sth Hemisphere honeyeaters, and a very strange, playful, monkey-like bird with an amazing range of bizarre vocalizations. Note the unique throat plumes, worn by both male and female birds. They are a combination of metallic purples, greens, black and blue, almost starling-like, though this is very hard to capture on camera. We'll post some more as we take them.
Another squashed beer bottle lid. This one for Tui beer. The bird is a Tui, which is native to New Zealand.
Maori name: Tui
Other names: Parson bird
Scientific name: Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae
Adult birds are about 30cm long. The male is heavier (120g) females about 90g. Appear black but in the light have green, bluish-purple and bronze colouring; a lacy collar of white filaments and white throat tufts; black legs and curved black bill and a white wing bar. Both sexes are alike. Juvenile tui are a dull slate black with glossy wings and tail, a greyish-white throat without the white throat tufts.
From the Zealandia Website
Out once again photographing Tui's. They make wonderful subjects and soon they will be gone again up country. So I'm making the most of them.
A TUI Airlines Netherlands Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner taxiing on a glorious winter dat at Schiphol Airport