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.

Kākāriki karaka - another nest

A perimeter-monitoring volunteer at the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary found a kākāriki karaka nest on Friday; she saw an adult feeding nestlings at the nest entrance. So I passed by yesterday to record the nest and add it to the database. An hour after I arrived the male arrived, fed his babies for a few minutes, so I took a few photos and recorded a video. [A few seconds after I started recording the light went from deep shade / cloud to bright sunlight, so my settings were all wrong and the video was washed out.]

So I decided to wait for the next feeding visit and leave video settings on 'auto' (white balance, ISO etc) and increase the chances of getting something worthwhile. I wasn't aware that the male was one of those infrequent nest visitors (who visit their babies less often, with probably more food in their tummies). It was two hours before his next visit. However, while I was waiting the nestlings made a few appearances at the nest entrance to keep me busy photographing and filming. The nest watch was 3 1/4 hours all up. I got back to the sanctuary office at 5.30pm (after an 8am start).

Above is Dad feeding his nestlings, and a nestling having a nibble on a stick between feeding visits. There were at least four nestlings in the nest. They are at the pre-fledgling stage, so are probably ready to leave the nest at any time; very likely within the next few days.

Here's a five-minute composite video of my few hours at the site. It includes the nestlings on their own waiting for their dad to bring them lunch, and then the whole feeding visit (about three minutes' worth). I edited out about twelve seconds where the camera completely lost focus (probably trying to focus on the darkness at the back of the nest). Turn your volume up to hear the babies' cute begging calls. Also make sure you select 1080p (under "settings" / "quality") on the video or it may default to 720p.

This is not one of my better nestling videos, but not too bad for first attempt at this nest. I was unfamiliar with where the nestlings were likely to be and where the adult was likely to stand, so I found I had to pan a few times. Lighting was difficult as previously mentioned. Focus was also a problem as there were effectively five birds one behind the other, well outside the 30mm depth of field. Anyway it's more cuteness for those who can't get enough of nestling videos. 😊

A few birds from yesterday

My weekly trip in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary was yesterday. Watched four kākāriki karaka nests, saw nestlings being fed at the entrance of two of them. The birds were very cooperative, I walked up Kākāriki Spur, and had completed two nest watches by 9.20am! In both cases the male arrived within three minutes of my arrival and got on with business. So I left and got on with the next watch.

On the way up the spur I saw and heard Pebbles and Bam-Bam (the kārearea juveniles) circling overhead. Needless to say they were not present at their nest site when I arrived. An hour or two later when watching a kākāriki karaka nest at the aviary I heard them again noisily flying over Zig-Zag block.

This photo of Pebbles from last week is growing on me.

While walking east along I line to watch another kākāriki karaka nest in Dun Block this very friendly and chatty piwakawaka (black fantail) stuck by me for quite some time. Much of the time was rather too friendly, it was well inside my minimum focal range for my lens (1.3m pulled back to 180mm) so I had to keep stepping back.

A kakaruai (South Island robin) joined it at one stage. The last photo is one I didn't use last week.