Twenty more kākāriki karaka were sent to the Brook and released on 2025-12-22. Birds in this release seemed more intent on nesting than the first release, a few of them quickly paired off and led us to their nests through radio tracking.
I began the task of nest watching. One reason for this was that on 2025-12-08 I had a fall in the sanctuary, and broke my neck! Avulsion fracture of the C5 and C6 cervical vertebrae. Fortunately no spinal cord damage, and was advised to let it heal naturally. No pain worthy of note either. However, I was also advised to not do any further damage while healing. Many thought it inadvisable to go bush-bashing while chasing birds and risk another fall, so I took on the task of sitting or lying down watching nests while the others went radio-tracking.
A nest watch is exactly what it sounds like. You watch a nest for as long as it takes to form an opinion on the stage of the nest. When a female is in the nest incubating, the male takes on the task of feeding her. He may visit every 40 minutes, or visit every 2.5 hours, perhaps even less frequently. So you sit or lie down, watch the nest hole, don't take your eyes off for more than a few seconds, binoculars on your chest, two-way radio at one side, bottle of water at the other, and notebook and pen and/or data-entry device (usually a mobile phone) ready for use. And of course snacks nearby, that are eaten while you watch the nest like a hawk.
When a male arrives to call his mate out for a feed, if you're lucky you hear him, or the entire visit may be in complete silence. A typical visit to a nest involving incubation may go something like:-
- Male arrives and calls out the female (noisily or silently, or something in between)
- Nothing happens. Male eventually departs after a few attempts to call her off (perhaps over a few minutes, or maybe much longer, half an hour or so). Or,
- Male arrives and calls out the female.
- Female comes out of the nest, for a feed, or for copulation (fertilising the next egg), and maybe they head off to the nearest stream or water source for a drink and/or bathing.
- Female heads back into the nest and the male departs. She'd normally be out of the nest from somewhere between about 3 and 15 minutes.
One mistake easily made here. Let's say you were watching a potential nest hole (that may or may not be in use). A male kākāriki karaka arrives behind you and calls out. You turn to see what may be happening and hopefully ID him from leg bands (using binoculars or a camera with telephoto). Suddenly another bird turns up (clearly his mate) and you have no idea where she came from. Did she come out of the nest hole you'd been watching for the last hour, or somewhere else? Had you been watching an active nest, or an empty hole? If you don't know, then you start again.... You wait another hour or two for the next visit, and this time pay attention to the nest hole! Ignore all other kākāriki in the area trying to distract you.
About this time I decided to take my camera on every visit to the sanctuary. I wanted kākāriki photos! I had a Nikon D5200 and 18-55mm kit lens but needed much more reach, so bought an entry-level 70-300mm.
.JPG "One of my first photos of an active kākāriki karaka nest")
The female above has just been called from her nest. Note she seems to have immediately noticed the change in her environment (my presence) even though I'm about 17m below and probably 15m horizontally from the base of the tree. Also note that no ID is yet possible, as her legs are not visible. This photo was taken at 300mm (or full-frame equivalent of 450mm). Clearly the more reach the lens has, the better. Full-frame 1200mm would have been appropriate here.
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Hopefully at some stage during a nest watch both birds will be ID'd. It's not often easy. Sometimes multiple visits over days or weeks result in failure to ID. It may be the nest is difficult to see from the ground, or it could be the behaviour of the birds (e.g., rapid entry or exit). In the above photo, both birds can be identified. On the left is the female, her leg bands are blue over white. On the right, the male is feeding his mate, his left leg shows green over pink (just barely visible through the foliage).
In the photo below, the male is feeding his mate, but all legs are hidden. This view is all too common!
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Female flying straight into her nest hole without stopping (tail feathers visible mid-photograph)
Other times the bird(s) will perch at the nest entrance, or on a branch nearby, giving you all the time in the world to note their leg bands (below).
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