Tui

Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae

Description:

Endemic New Zealand Honeyeater. Typically aggressive and noisy. Appears black but is in fact a dark iridescent blue/purple and dark reddish brown if seen in sunlight. Also has two white throat tufts and a lacy collar of fine white filaments and white wing bar seen in flight.

Habitat:

Widespread throughout the North Island and most of the South Island. Found in Native forest, parklands and urban areas especially where flax, kowhai and gums are flowering.

Notes:

This individual feeding on kowhai flowers in my garden that were planted especially to attract these birds.

Species ID Suggestions

7 Comments

DanielePralong 9 years ago

Congratulations triggsturner! Your spotting has been chosen for Project Noah Fact of the Day: " A high proportion of New Zealand’s animals, plants and fungi are not found anywhere else in the world; these are known as endemic species. This is due to New Zealand’s long isolation from other continental landmasses. Of all bird species found in New Zealand before human settlement, 71% were endemic. New Zealand is also remarkable for its low representation (land mammals) or absence (land snakes for instance) of some animal groups. Land-based species are dominated by insects and fungi: each has an estimated 20,000 species – many of which have not yet been described.

Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae), a bird endemic to New Zealand spotted in Waikato by Project Noah user triggsturner".
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...

triggsturner 9 years ago

Thank you Maria, I have made a lot of effort to plant native feed species in my garden over the years and the results have paid for themselves.

Maria dB 9 years ago

Beautiful series and such a good example of the advantages of planting native plants in one's yard to attract wildlife. I especially like the third photo - wonderful!