The next time you spot a tui in your tree best you be polite and look the other way.

The vocal native birds are getting more and more visible around the Waikato this time of year, and it has got a lot to do with the game of love, says Waikato Regional Council natural heritage programme manager Kevin Collins.

‘‘The tui are out and about at the moment, that’s for sure,’’ Mr Collins said.

‘‘They are becoming more and more visible in the city especially and kind of getting rambunctious about spring.

‘‘There could be some courtship going on because, like us, tui get a bit romantic when the weather starts to warm up and the blossoms come out.’’

But it is not all love going on in the trees, with a little bit of tui war thrown in for good measure.

‘‘They can be making a lot of noise because they are saying to each other ‘Hey! This is my tree and you can go somewhere else’,’’ he said.

Mr Collins credited Operation Halo, which aims to increase tui numbers in the city, as a key factor in boosting the birds numbers.

But there was a down side to the rise in tui sightings, he said.

‘‘The more tui people see the more they become blase about reporting tui sightings,’’ he said.

‘‘We would encourage anyone who sees a tui, especially in multiple numbers, to report them to Waikato Regional Council.’’

People could help protect tui numbers by planting native trees, keeping domestic cats in at night and set rat traps in gullies and by compost bins

- © Fairfax NZ News

Comments