Our Backyard Birds
A post celebrating our backyard manu, and the NZ Garden Bird Survey
Tomorrow marks the start of Te Tatauranga o ngā Manu Māra o Aotearoa: The New Zealand Garden Bird Survey. It’s a citizen science initiative (a way for us non-scientists to contribute to scientific research) which has been running since 2007. To celebrate, we’ll look at a few of the manu (birds) I expect to see in our māra (garden) this winter.
Your results may vary! I highly recommend using eBird’s Explore Regions function to see what birds you might see in your area.
There’s more detailed information on their website, but if you’re interested in taking part here’s the gist of it:
Pick a spot (garden, park, reserve, deck - or the view outside your window!).
For ONE hour, record the birds you see.
Submit your results to the NZ Garden Bird Survey website.
Ngā Manu/The Birds
Kererū/New Zealand Pigeon
Often mistakenly called ‘wood pigeon’, I am particularly interested in kererū because my regional report for 2022 shows there’s been a moderate-rapid decline in our area. Like our other manu, their numbers are primarily threatened by introduced predators and habitat loss.
I love the message from Kererū Discovery that “the bird in your backyard is the bird in the bush”. It reminds me that anything I can do for kererū where I live will help the kererū population in the wild, as well.
Kererū eat berries and other fruit, but will also munch away on foliage, flowers, and twigs - later in the winter season I will often see them guzzling down kōwhai leaves! So I think the best way I can help is to plant more native fruit-bearing trees (there’s a useful list here) and research our options for predator control.
They are also able to eat larger fruit - with larger seeds - than many of our other manu, so they play a super important role in reforestation by spreading seeds of native trees in their poop!
Riroriro/Grey Warbler
I discovered this endemic bird during one of my previous NZ Garden Bird Surveys. Using the New Zealand Birds ‘Identify that bird’ tool, combined with a UK audiobook on birding, I eventually identified it as a riroriro. Now that I can recognise them - and their warbling waiata (song) - they are fast becoming one of my favourite manu.
Riroriro featured in my Weekly Wildlife column last month. We find them in our garden all year round and I am getting better at spotting them as they move about in the branches, occasionally venturing into lower shrubs or our patch of overgrown weeds.
They are notoriously difficult to spot and usually I can only track them by watching for a branch shaking, or the rustling of leaves. I’m convinced we have a nest in our oak tree (I am just getting my head around bird identification, and am definitely not ready to make a confident ID on nests yet). We see riroriro all year round, though, so if they’re not nesting here they must be somewhere nearby.
Riroriro are found throughout the country, in rural and urban areas. They’re exclusively insectivorous so if you want to attract them then keep pesticides out, leave some leaf litter around, and try creating a small woodpile somewhere in the garden to attract more creepy crawlies for them to feed on.
Tūī
I haven’t included the “common” English name for tūī in the title because, well, it’s not really that common! Once upon a time it was called ‘parson bird’ by European settlers because of the white feathered tuft (poi) at its throat, but most New Zealanders will know them as tūī (or its alternative te reo Māori name, kōkō).
Most of us can recognise a tūī when we see one, though their song can get mixed up with the song of korimako (bellbird) on occasion. If they’re not making their usual racket you can also listen out for the whirring of their wings in flight. You’re bound to spot them anywhere with a sugar source!
Last year’s results tell us there’s been a shallow increase in their numbers, so with continued planting of nectar-rich trees and predator control, we can continue to encourage these iconic endemic birds.
Korimako/Bellbird
I didn’t see many korimako when I was in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, but my parents see them their suburban garden so they must be around! They are similar to tūī in behaviour and song, but in appearance are much more like a large greenfinch.
Males are larger than females with a more saturated green-ness, charcoal black tail and wing feathers, and a purple-tinted head. Females are smaller, brownish, and have a bluish tint to their foreheads. They also have a whitish-yellow streak running along their cheek from the base of their bill. Juveniles are similar to females, but they don’t have the blue colouring and their eyes lack the brilliant red that both male and female adults have.
We see them every winter when I put out the sugar-water feeder, in spring when the kōwhai is in bloom, and in summer when the harakeke (New Zealand flax) is flowering. I also often see them hanging around our tawai (southern beech) tree, apparently pecking at the bark. I suspect they are eating caterpillars and other insects that I can’t see (or haven’t noticed) and perhaps honeydew from the endemic beech scale insect (similar to ants eating honeydew from aphids).
Interestingly, honeydew production is greatly reduced when their are large wasp numbers around (up to 90%) which is a great reminder that the balance of ecosystems is complex and not always easily apparent. They are one of the species most responsive to predator control efforts.
Pīwakawaka/Fantail
I must have a soft spot for small birds because these are another firm favourite! They are often happily chirping away, and will hang around when we’re disturbing the environment and sending up plenty of insects for them to eat. When my sister and I were hiking through the nearby Trotter’s Gorge, a pair followed us along for most of the walk, eating insects in our wake.
After moving south, I learned about the black morph. It’s still the same species but instead of being pied brown and white, it is completely black in colour. We had a couple in our garden the first year we moved in, but I haven’t seen any lately - they only make up 5% of the population in the South Island, and aren’t generally found in the North Island. There are also occasionally leucistic white ones.
If you can get them to sit still for one second (or get your shutter speed up fast enough!) they are wonderful manu to photograph. They’ll get up close and personal and won’t mind if you walk around with your camera. As well as being able to get close up shots, it’s much easier to capture natural behaviour - even in an unnatural habitat like a garden. Quite often, when photographing pīwakawaka, I’ll have to step back to actually fit them in the frame!
Like riroriro, pīwakawaka are insectivorous so attracting them in is easy - just make your outdoor space insect friendly.
Happy bird counting!
Zenobia x
You might also like:
A Woodpile for Winter - an easy way to attract insects and birds to your outdoor space
Creating a bird-friendly haven - a guide by the NZ Garden Bird Survey
New Zealand Bird Atlas - if you enjoyed counting birds for science, join this five-year citizen science project (there’s only one year left!)
Honeydew Ecosystem - an article including video on the ecosystems around scale insects by Science Learning Hub
In the Garden: Explore & discover the New Zealand backyard - a book by
Tui and Piwakawa are definitely my favorite.
Although the Kereru to me is a very graceful looking bird. I love its beautiful colours that blend into each other so beautifully.
I enjoyed reading this post.
Thank you.
Birds are magical. Thanks for this