Tui

Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae

Tui are commonly heard Tangihua ranges, usually scrapping with other Tui

The Tui’s diet plays a very important role in Tangihua forest. As they fossick for pollen they are one of the most common pollinators of flowering plants. They also eat and disperse the seeds of trees with medium-sized fruit.
Some Tui are resident in the Tangihua ranges, others Tui move in at different times of the year such as when the Kowhai is in flower. The kowhai higher in the ranges are flower later than elsewhere hence the congregation of birds.
Tui’s aggressive behaviour towards each other and other birds  makes them very vocal, with a complicated mix of tuneful notes interspersed with coughs, grunts and wheezes. The lovely song is actually male Tui abusively telling other Tui to……..and go away!! as in the photo, note the flax pollen on one Tui’s head 

In flight, their bodies slant with the head higher than the tail, and their noisy whirring flight is interspersed with short glides.

Tui distribution and habitat

Tui are widespread and locally abundant in all of New Zealand. Tui are found in native forest and scrub (sometimes in exotic forests), stands of flowering kowhai and gums. The have adapted well to human habitation and do well  in rural gardens, and in suburban parks and gardens.
They usually nest in native forest and scrub, but will commute more than 10 km daily to feed on rich sources of nectar.

Tui reproduction

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. Incubation and brooding is by the female only. Chicks are initially fed only by the female, but later the male helps to feed them.
At this time Tui will often catch insects to provide a higher protein diet for their chicks.

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. This is to deter other birds and tui males.

Tui identification

The Tui look black with a white throat feather in poor light  but up close in good lighting tui are very beautiful. The photos are taken of Tui in a Hawian Pohutakawa feeding during winter. ( GM)  
The Tui’s  underparts, wings and tails have an iridescent blue and green sheen, especially on the head and wings. 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 patches shoulder patches on the upper wing 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. Adults have a notch on the 8th primary, and this feather quivers from the narrow part creating the whirring sound in flight. At first, juveniles have a browner body and lack the throat tuft, but after a few months they are only distinguishable in the hand from the lack of notch on the 8th primary.

Tui diet

The Tui’s diet varies depending on the seasonal availability of nectar and fruits. Their preferred diet is nectar and honeydew, and they will often shift or commute daily to, good nectar sources, such as stands of puriri, kowhai, fuchsia, rewarewa, flax, rata, pohutukawa, gums and banksias.
In the breeding season, tui supplement their nectar diet with large invertebrates such as cicadas and stick insects obtained by hawking or by gleaning from the outside of trees. 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.
The Tui’s diet  plays a very important role in New Zealand forests as it makes them one of the most common pollinators of flowering plants, and also disperse the seeds of trees with medium-sized fruits.

Maori

Tui were the most common bird found in Maori middens and were probably once an important source of protein.

Recovery plan for Tui in the Tangihua ranges

Issue

Tui are common on the Tangihua ranges but numbers have been diminished due to predation while nesting
Despite the loss of the vast majority of lowland forest in New Zealand, Tui have probably benefited from the introduction to New Zealand of a variety of flowering and fruiting plants. These new species, as well as ‘out-of-range’ plantings of native species now provide tui with a reliable year-round supply of nectar and fruit.

Action

Tui respond extremely well to pest control programmes targeting possums, rats and mustelids, which are their main nest predators.