The first nests of the season for the kākāriki karaka in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary are fledging or perhaps a couple of weeks away. I checked a few out last weekend.
The first nest watch on Saturday was in Weka Block. This nest hole here is a popular one, and has been used at least once every season since the reintroduction of the first parakeets in 2021. Here Dad has just arrived at his nest, immediately a hungry baby pops its head out.
There are at least three babies in there, perhaps a few more.
Then Mum arrives and awaits her turn to feed their offspring.
Dad has departed and Mum is about to feed those hungry mouths. These nestlings look ready to fledge and could fly any time. Their plumage is well developed. The orange frontal bands will develop shortly.
Then onto the second nest watch of the day. This nest hole is only four metres off the ground so is quite easy to watch. Here Dad goes into the nest for a couple of minutes (to feed his nestlings) then departs. Mum is likely preparing her second nest, probably not too far away, likely less than 100m from here and perhaps much closer. The nestlings are not visible at the entrance yet, so are likely a couple of weeks away from flying.
Then onto the third nest watch of the day. This one is also only about 4m off ground so easy to watch. We were not aware that this site contained an active nest. I was hoping/expecting to find some interest in this site by kākāriki karaka, perhaps prospecting. However, an hour after arrival, a male perched at the nest entrance and started feeding hungry nestlings! So it had been a nest for at least eight weeks and we'd missed it. A member of the Brook kākāriki karaka monitoring team had watched it a month earlier (to find out if the nest cavity contained a nest). Right at the time that kākāriki karaka had arrived and showed some interest in the site, a pair of noisy humans passed by on a track nearby and disturbed the birds (the humans would have had no idea of course). Hence the nest watch ended with no nest activity observed.
Anyway, a month later, no noisy humans were present and a nest was discovered.
Here the male arrives. One nestling is visible inside the entrance; although it's out-of-focus it looks like it's about two weeks from fledging. It still has the grey fluff / early feathers visible, and no yellow crown yet.
Dad feeds one (or more) of the nestlings at the entrance.
Preparing the next mouth-full.
Then he goes inside the nest and disappears for a minute or two. The nest bowl could be some distance inside, perhaps even a metre below the entrance. He is likely feeding other less adventurous (i.e., younger) nestlings in their nest bowl.
Then Mum turns up and also enters the nest bowl, here she is on the way out.
The birds are unbanded so of course were born in the Brook. Sometimes a bit of guesswork is needed to determine which is the male and female, but behaviours often give an indication, and facial features also help. Males tend to have a stronger developed orange frontal band and larger beak.
The following day (Sunday) I was back for more nest watching.
First watch was a nest hole about 15m up a tree. One of our well-known birds WP-S has used this for the last few seasons. A few weeks ago he and his mate were prospecting here (and in another of their nearby previously-used nest holes).
Here a different pair checked out the nest hole. They were chatting to each other with soft contact calls typical of nest prospecting. They took turns perched at the nest entrance bobbing their heads in and out. It's possible that the mate of WP-S was inside the nest with her chicks, or perhaps the nest bowl was empty and the prospecting pair were not too interested in the site for some reason. Another watch in a couple of weeks will be needed to find out what the situation is.
Then onto the second nest watch of the day. This site was discovered this season by a pest monitoring volunteer who saw parakeets prospecting here. It may have been used for nesting in previous seasons, but this is the first time we've known about it.
Dad arrived and headed immediately into his nest and was inside for a couple of minutes. I never heard any sounds of nestling begging calls, so the nest bowl may be quite deep. There was no sign of Mum, she may be preparing her second nest. This nest is likely to fledge in 2-3 weeks. By the way, I took a tripod to this site hoping to film nestlings being fed at the nest entrance, but was obviously too early. Perhaps I'll try again this weekend.
Here is Dad leaving his nest after presumably feeding his nestlings.
However, while I was at this site, I heard very clear sounds of nestling begging calls, but not from this nest hole! The sounds were coming from some tall beech trees about 20-30m below this site. We'd been watching parakeet activity there a couple of times over the last month or two, but had never been able to find a nest. So, an unplanned third nest watch was now the priority, but first I had to find the nest....
Half an hour after I heard the begging calls while watching the above nest, I moved down close to where the begging calls appeared to have been coming from. Half an hour later I heard them again, but saw no adults. I circled the tree in a hurry, while looking upwards as much as possible (while also trying to avoid breaking my ankle on the steep and unstable terrain). I saw a bird depart from about 25m up the tree, no time to identify it, but guessed it was a kākāriki karaka after a feeding visit. I was fairly sure then that I had the correct tree. Fifteen minutes later I heard begging calls again, but again had not seen a parent arrive. I saw no bird depart this time.
I was fairly sure the nest cavity was at least 25m up the trunk hidden above some branches. I also was pretty sure that the parent(s) arrive at their nest in silence as I'd never heard them arrive or depart on their previous visits. So there was no choice but to find a good watch spot and watch without taking my eyes off the target site; I could not rely on my ears. For the next hour and a half plenty of kākāriki karaka were in the vicinity, including in the canopy of the target tree. None of it appeared to be nesting behaviour, and there were no begging calls heard in response to the calls from the other parakeets.
One and a half hours after the last time I'd heard the begging calls, a pair of kākāriki karaka arrived in the canopy of the tree in silence and hopped around for a few minutes feeding. They could be the nesting pair. (I also had a stiff neck from looking up uninterrupted for the whole 1.5h). After a few minutes one of the pair landed on a branch near my target and rested in silence. Exactly what I'd expect from a parent about to feed nestlings. I watched him intently, and two minutes later he landed on the trunk at a small hole and I heard the begging calls again. Mission accomplished! The nest hole was about 2m below where I guessed it would be, but fortunately it was visible from the ground. I'd guessed it would be above the branches a little higher and not visible.
Here Dad has just arrived at his nest entrance. He's watching me, as this is likely the first time he's been watched at his nest. He's being cautious and/or curious about the new creature nearby. He's also safely 25m from the ground...
Dad feeding his nestlings. I could hear them begging but did not see them.
Anyway, job done, a new nest for the database. It took three hours from when I first heard the begging calls to locate the nest cavity.
As I was packing up to leave, I took a final glance at the nest hole, and saw Mum! She had also arrived in silence to feed her nestlings, 15 minutes after they'd been fed by Dad.
This nest will likely fledge in about two weeks. Mum should soon be on her second nest, and Dad will likely finish the job of feeding the nestlings and looking after them for a few weeks after they fledge.
January will be a good time to spot kākāriki karaka fledglings in the Sanctuary as we seem to have quite a few nests ready to fledge shortly. The nests we know about will only represent a small percentage of actual nests.
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