Kākāriki karaka - just some more mugshots

The kākāriki karaka were pretty friendly yesterday in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. So it was mugshot time. Here are a few shots I liked.

The guy in the third and fourth photos seems to have had some feather loss around his eyes, but tiny feathers seem to be growing back. (I'm just guessing that that's what's going on.)

Korimako & tauhou feasting on the last apples

There is a Bramley apple tree near my house. They're the best cooking apples, they have an intense flavour and turn to puree when cooked, so they're perfect for sauce. They're late season apples, usually picked in May / June. There were plenty left over this year, so I left them on the tree for the birds. I expect they'll last until well into July, perhaps even August. Commonly there will be a flock of tauhou (waxeye / silvereye) feasting, and on occasion a korimako (bellbird) or two.

The korimako are known bullies, and even though there are probably 100 apples left in the tree, will chase a tauhou off an apple and claim ownership of it. The tauhou will generally watch for a bit then start snacking on another apple. There is plenty for everyone.

Below: a tauhou watching a korimako today, and another watching the cameraman. And a korimako feasting on an apple after chasing off the tauhou.

Kākāriki karaka 2025 population count

As has been done every year since their reintroduction, we attempted to count the population of kākāriki karaka in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary early this week. Department of Conservation staff drove up from Rangiora, some Nelson City Council staff helped out, and with Brook staff and volunteers it was all hands on deck with approximately 24 people doing the survey. Twelve lines were walked, with parakeet playback audio played through speakers on a rough 200-300m grid. Surveyors listen for responses, then try to lure in any parakeets detected and identify them. The survey was conducted on Sunday, then repeated on Monday (with surveyors changing lines to reduce data-collector bias).

Approximately 150 playback points were used, and this data was added to lower-priority playback data collected over the previous two days in areas with lower expected parakeet density.

So, how many kākāriki karaka did we count? Well, that's a difficult one to answer for a few reasons:-

• The birds showed only modest interest in our playback survey last year; this year they showed even less interest. This means that an unknown number of parakeets will likely remain undetected during the survey. (Of the 42 parakeets detected during 23 playback points on my two lines, I'm only moderately confident that two of them may have reacted to the playback, the rest appeared unresponsive to the playback.) For whatever reason, they aren't interested in the playback. Perhaps they're clever enough to know it doesn't come from 'real' birds. Or perhaps they detect the playback doesn't come from birds resident in the sanctuary (the playback audio was recorded elsewhere). Or perhaps parakeets are now so common in the sanctuary that the sound of parakeets chattering nearby is immaterial to them. Your guess is as good as mine....

• Over the last month or two, it has become clear that the parakeets in the sanctuary are going through a 'quiet' phase. They are there, but not being very vocal. In many cases they are going about their lives in complete silence. Small green birds in the tree canopy the same colour as the leaves become quite a lot harder to detect if they're also silent! What's the explanation for this silence? Nesting has ended (nesting involves communication). Offspring have grown up and become independent (parents with fledglings make quite a bit of noise for a time). There are signs that food is plentiful in the sanctuary, so perhaps the parakeets don't feel the need to inform other birds about the presence of food. Etc. Birds are not performance artists, their vocalisation would tend to be communication of some sort, and if they have nothing to say, then it seems likely to me that they won't say it. Hence their quietness.

• Upon upload of the playback data (the playback points used and any birds detected), the DOC database malfunctioned and some data was not added to the database, users then had some of their data erased from their input devices (their mobile phones). The missing data was subsequently detected but we have been told that it will take some months to add to the database. I do not have access to the missing data.

I am not terribly patient, and chose to not wait for a few months for the missing data. I also know that some of the participants in the survey (and anyone else involved in anything at all at the sanctuary) would like some indication of how the survey went and any indicators to our parakeet population. (I have been asked a few times how many birds we found, and was not sure how to answer.) So I scraped the database for what information was there, used a fudge factor for the missing data, and the biggest fudge factor of all; the likely non-detection rate of our parakeets (i.e., what percentage of our birds did we miss due to their silence and non-response to the survey).

I did come up with a likely population range (that I think our kākāriki karaka population is very likely to lie within), but won't post the numbers here as it's very unofficial - it's only MY numbers - but will say that I'm pretty happy with the number. It is consistent with continued significant year-on-year population growth. It also is consistent with anecdotal information indicating a healthy population. E.g., most of the previously-used nest holes we watched over the summer became active at some stage (some more than once). We confirmed more nests this season than in previous years even though we didn't try as hard (and didn't have the benefit of radio tracking). Parakeets are being detected further west and down the valley. Etc. The closest I'll get to providing my best estimate for the kākāriki karaka population in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary in writing at this stage would be "a few hundred". Hopefully that will keep everyone happy until the official (and somewhat more scientifically-robust) number becomes available some months from now. 

In the meantime here's a mugshot of one of the population I met yesterday.

A kākāriki karaka on the cover of PsittaScene

The World Parrot Trust publishes a quarterly magazine (print and digital) cleverly-named PsittaScene (a homonym of 'psittacine', the name for the parrot order). Myself and the WPT Oceania Regional Director Luis Ortiz-Catedral wrote an 'update from the field' article on a kākāriki karaka nest in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary (see my post below from March 9th). A photo of a nestling in the nest also made it onto the cover of the magazine.

The magazine is available for download on the World Parrot Trust's website.

Kākāriki karaka - our last nest of the season (that we know about)

I headed into the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary last Saturday (April 5th) with a ton of camera gear, including my new tripod and gimbal, to hopefully film my favourite activity in the sanctuary - baby kākāriki karaka being fed at their nest entrance by mum or dad. First nest was the one that appears here (nest OFP048), but I was too early! All I saw was mum quietly arrive and enter the nest then leave a few minutes later. I did not see or hear any babies. The nest was not as advanced as I had expected.

So I moved onto the next nest.... and was too late! No activity at the nest (I watched for two hours), and it had likely fledged.

In the meantime, other members of the Brook 'team kākāriki' watched nest 048 on Thursday, and saw two hungry babies being fed at the nest entrance. So guess what my mission this Saturday was going to be... I hoped I would not be too late (the nest may have fledged between Thursday and Saturday).

I arrived yesterday at the nest at about 9am (I walked in), and the first thing I saw and heard was adult(s) and fledglings in the canopy of the nest tree. I guessed I was too late.... but a few minutes later I saw a couple of little green heads at the nest entrance. I was still setting up my tripod but finished setting up in time to film the feeding action. Perfect! Actually I spent close to four hours at the nest site and watched five feeding visits by mum and dad, I filmed the first four and took stills on the last visit.

The nest is not an easy one to photograph or film, it's in deep shade and gets no sun at all. Stills were shot at 40,000 - 51,200 ISO, and video at 8000.

Here is dad, ever watchful as he's about to feed his babies, as a kārearea (NZ falcon) is cruising nearby.

The babies have seen and/or heard mum arrive (I didn't), so they're ready for a feed. Note that the lower one is noticeably younger than the other two. Lesser developed yellow crown and facial feathers, and still has grey baby fluff. On the last feeding visit by dad this one got no food at all, the older siblings got the lot. It was at the bottom of the nest with no way to get to the nest entrance as big brother/sister were in the way (all I saw was a beak and part of its head). Also, on the last feeding visit by Mum the baby again got no food and didn't put in an appearance (see second video below).

Then mum arrives. She is out of focus, with motion blur, and in the sunlight is completely overexposed.

Who is mum going to feed, the one on the top?

Nope! Perhaps the one in the middle....

Nope again! The baby gets it all. In fact, mum had about eight regurgitations in the two or three minutes of this feeding visit, and the baby (the runt of the litter) got the lot. Mum must have known its needs were greater somehow. Perhaps she remembered the last time she fed them the baby didn't get anything.

Indignant older siblings.... "Where's mine, Mum?!? Why is the baby getting it all?"

Older sibling waiting for the next feed while the baby rests after a major feast.

So now to the videos. I've uploaded three of them, no significant processing, just some trimming at the beginning and end. Watch as many as you like. 😊Quality is not too bad given the low light conditions.

The first video is just under two minutes and shows a complete feeding visit by Dad. He feeds two of the birds, including the baby of the litter (the lower one). The third nestling perhaps wasn't hungry, or had something more important to do in the nest! Anyway, it wasn't trying too hard to get Dad's attention.

The second video is about 50 seconds, and consists of a full feeding visit by Mum. She feeds the older two nestlings, the baby doesn't make an appearance.

The third video is about four minutes, and is also a complete feeding visit (if you want more!). Dad doesn't make an appearance until 1m 30s, he is nearby though and the nestlings know it! Dad is ever watchful for the cruising kārearea who can be clearly heard from about 2m 40s.

I expect this nest to fledge in the next few days. My guess is the older two nestlings will be out of there first, but the younger one may take a few days longer before flight. Parents will take the older two on flight training while they (or at least one of them) continue feeding the young one until it's ready to join them.

Pīwakawaka - black fantail

 I spent the day in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary yesterday, doing my part of our thrice-yearly sanctuary-wide survey (checking to see that no unwanted predators have invaded) and brought along my camera of course (I always do). I carried it all day, and although saw plenty of birds (robins, tomtits, bellbirds, and of course kākāriki in the canopy), I never got my camera out of my pack. So I carried 4kg of camera gear for nothing. No problem, it happens, and I'd rather have it and not use it than leave it behind and miss a golden opportunity for a special photograph or two.

[By the way, I also spent the day in the Brook last Saturday, took about 150 photographs of birds, some were nice enough but didn't think any were worth posting. Very bright sunny day, so extreme contrast issues (sun vs shade), or real lack of light in the shade as all light was coming from one point (the sun), and no reflected light from clouds.]

Then I was about 2m from my car on the way out and this friendly wee fella stopped by to say "Hi". The black colour morph of the pīwakawaka / NZ fantail makes up about 5% of the south island population (about 1% in the north island) so it's always nice to see them. This wee bird was also present the previous week at the Brook car-park, so I guess plenty of Brook volunteers have also seen it.

Curiously, although the bird looks pretty black when seen first hand, it's quite clear that it's not particularly black at all when looked at closely!

Kākāriki karaka - nests fledging

Today I checked out last week's new kākāriki karaka nest (see post from March 9th 2025 below) expecting it to have fledged. It had. The nest hole appeared empty. In order to enter the nest into the DOC database as 'successful' I would need some evidence of success, e.g., fledgling seen near nest, fledgling seen with parent(s) etc.

Half an hour after I arrived, an adult appeared in the canopy with a squeaky young fledgling. They were in the same tree that the adult male used as his 'arrival' tree last week. That was evidence of success; there was good reason to believe that the adult and fledgling just seen were from this nest. I took no photos of them as they were obscured high in the canopy. But, mission accomplished. Here's another photo of two of the nestlings (there were at least four in there) in their nest last week.

So, onto the next nest. This one was on the aptly-named Kākāriki Spur. It had been watched two days ago, the male had been seen feeding nestling(s) at the nest entrance, and the nest was likely to fledge soon (in fact the predictor on the database had today down as likely fledging day, although that can easily be out by a week or more). So I decided to check it out.

Nothing happened for the first 40 minutes or so (no surprise there). Then an adult and a fledgling (perhaps two) turned up in the canopy of the nest tree, then departed. They were perhaps from this nest? About 20 minutes later an adult and two fledglings (perhaps the same ones) landed in the canopy nearby, the fledglings sounded pretty young. I immediately heard begging calls coming from the nest and saw a tiny head appear at the nest entrance. (This nest is a long way up the tree and not great for watching from the ground or photography.) Anyway, there was a time when there was communication back-and-forth between the nestling and the fledglings (or perhaps just one of them). The nestling would call, then a fledgling would reply from the tree they were flicking around in 15m away, then the nestling again. Call and response. I could only imagine what they might be saying.....

"I'm lonely in here, please come home!"

"Come on out, this flying thing is tricky, but it's fun!"

"But it's a long way down and I'm scared.... and I'm hungry."

It seemed highly likely that the adult was PB-S (the male from this nest) and the fledglings had recently flown from the nest; the bird still in the nest would of course be their sibling. Shortly afterwards I identified PB-S from his leg bands. So another successful nest.

At one stage the noisy trio landed 1-2m from the nest entrance and hopped around for a while. Their nest-bound sibling chatted constantly, probably asking for food. The food stored in Dad's stomach was so close but that two metres of empty space between the nestling and its family was just too far for a bird yet to take its first flight. For the hour and a half I was watching this nest the dad offered no food to the nestling. This would likely have provided further encouragement to the nestling to spread its wings and "come and get it".

A poor photo below, but the beak of the nestling is visible at the entrance of the nest hole at the centre of the photo. The nest is about 15-20m off the ground. The trio at one stage were hopping around on those branches behind, and in lighter foliage to the left of the nest entrance.

The fledglings were already pretty good fliers; they spent most of their time in the upper canopy with no trouble maintaining altitude, even though my guess is they had been out of their nest for less than a day. They made plenty of clumsy landings though (ending up upside down with wings tangled in the foliage). The nestling looked a bit younger than its siblings, perhaps it needs another day or two before it joins its family.

In the photo below, PB-S (the dad) on the right watches me while one of his clumsy fledglings chatters to him ("I'm hungry", or "Can we stop now?" etc.)

So, now on to my final nest watch of the day. This nest had been last watched five weeks ago, and was due for a check-up. Half an hour after I arrived, the male arrived, landed at the nest entrance, the female popped her head out (photo below), they flew into the foliage a few metres from the nest entrance, he fed her, then three minutes later she went back into her nest. She likely has hatchlings (a few days old). A more routine nest watch than the previous one, but more evidence that our precious birds are having another good breeding season.