Those who've been following this blog for a while will remember the feel-good story about Floyd from last September. Here's a link to the post if you haven't seen it. Since I wrote that post I'd seen Floyd once more, in October 2025.
I was walking through the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary yesterday picking up some monitoring cards, and as I picked up the last card I heard some soft chatter just uphill. I turned, and a pair of kākāriki karaka were feeding on the buttress roots of a beech. I saw a silver band on the right leg of one (indicating a male), and guessed pretty quickly that the bird was Floyd. I was only about 30m above his old nest site from 2022. He moved a few times and sure enough, it was Floyd. He's now a little over eight years old, and by far the oldest kākāriki karaka in the Brook.
Here is Floyd looking beautiful and healthy.
Floyd and his wife (I'll call her Mrs Floyd) were tearing off bits of the sooty mold (which is indicative of the presence of scale insects) to snack on the insects themselves. [These particular scale insects consume sap from the tree phloem and excrete excess sugar through the filaments commonly seen with a drop of honeydew at the end.]
Here is Mrs Floyd looking as healthy and beautiful as her beau. Two photos followed by close-ups showing the scale insect in her beak. The filament is still attached to the bug.
Now a photo of Floyd with a scale insect in his beak, and a close-up.
Floyd checking out a nearby tree for more scale insects.
He's found one.
Compare this photo with the previous one, the filament above Floyd's right claw is gone and there is a hole where the scale insect used to be. (That's Mrs Floyd in the background.)
One more photo of Floyd.... until next time.
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