Tuesday 26 October 2010

NZ Tui.


This is a much loved NZ bird, and very difficult to photograph. Luckily I was standing at the kitchen window with my camera when it kindly perched on the tree outside :)

9 comments:

Diamond Mair said...

It doesn't LOOK very friendly - is it one of your personal favorites? Is it a songbird?

Semper Fi'
DM

Gecko said...

No, it's not one of my favourites, and I'm not sure what the fuss is all about really. They are quite aggressive, I've seen them kill other birds, and they certainly aren't song birds.

Diamond Mair said...

Mayhap it's the avian version of the natives? ;-)

Semper Fi'
DM

The probligo said...

Hey Gecko! Tui are the best singers - after kokako that is... :):)

For outsiders, you can (I hope) hear 30 secs of tui call here -

http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/2009/02/27/tui

The kokako is here -

http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/2008/11/28/kokako_-_the_blue_wattled_crow

We get tui in our neighbourhood over spring/summer when the main nectar trees are in flower. Great to hear! I have heard kokako twice in the wild - they are very rare. First time was very early morning in Pukeiti, second at Tiritirimatangi.

Gecko, do you know if Bob (the tui) is still alive at Mt Bruce? He has a fantastic line in the local dialect - and not necessarily suitable for publication...

MathewK said...

That's a lovely pic Gecko, hope you're here in Australia now, welcome back.

Karen K said...

Fantastic, Gecko! What a lovely bird... he's looking like, "What are you doing, lady?"

Hope you arrived safely and are getting settled okay!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous!! Say no bad things about Tuis. They're great. Love their strange, quirky mechanical clicks and whirs. Kind of like a broken down R2D2. Good video of one singing here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8diWFGM6sQ

Gecko said...

Thank you Karen + MK :) We've finally reached our destination, ad we're sharing one computer at present, until we can arrange another connection :(

Gecko said...

Thanks MOM, I've seen them attacking other birds, I didn't realise they were so aggressive.