Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

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kengeorge
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Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby kengeorge » Fri Jul 13, 2018 8:13 pm

On TV One's Seven Sharp show tonight, presenter Jeremy Wells stated adamantly that "you never see tui on the ground". He went on to say that tui never going down on the ground is one of the reasons behind their resurgence as a species. Although I've only seen it a couple of times, I have seen tui feeding on the ground. Once was in a garden where there was a multiple flower pot arrangement on the ground, in a matrix pattern, the pots being about 200 millimeters apart. I watched a tui walking around between the pots picking off spiders and insects and eating them. The other time was in a garden in Waikanae where I watched a young tui walking around a bottlebrush tree, accessing the nectar in the blossoms from ground level. The garden owner told me the tui did that every morning just after sunrise, when the blossoms were full of moisture. The interesting thing was that the tui both walked step by step (like a blackbird) and also hopped and jumped from one position to the next. Anybody else noticed tui feeding on the ground?
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Oscar Thomas
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby Oscar Thomas » Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:50 pm

Happens on Tiritiri Matangi fairly often.
GrahamB
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby GrahamB » Sat Jul 14, 2018 2:41 pm

See it happen now and then in my Waikanae garden. No big deal.
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:10 pm

Yup, I've seen them on the ground lots too. Feeding on low flowers as above, turning over fallen camellia flowers looking for inverts, and picking something (grit?) off my drive.
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Charlotte
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby Charlotte » Sun Jul 29, 2018 2:24 pm

We have the same in Lower Hutt, either when the Rata creeper flowers or picking stuff (we assume small stones) from the vege garden. Happens regularly.
Brettis
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby Brettis » Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:04 pm

Hi
Just joined up.
Sitting here in garden watching a parent tui teaching a young one where our feeder is and instead it went to the ground and not sure if it was after insects or grit. It was a bit daunting because we only just installed an anti cat jumping piece of netting around feeder to protect them. Thought mum would of taught it better.
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:10 pm

I've been seeing them on the ground more often lately. Always female, so I assume it's inverts or grit on the menu for chicks.This morning one came out of a pile of wood off-cuts with something, I presume invertebrate. It's also one of many song thrush anvils around the house, but I couldn't tell if it was snail bits it was after.
Robert24
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby Robert24 » Sat Feb 02, 2019 2:50 pm

We just had a Tui fly between us and land on our dirt garden path in Matapouri. No food around, it lay on the ground very still with it’s wings spread. I walked to about three metres away and then it flew away. Took a picture. I have seen a magpie do the same thing in a bunker at a golf course. Any thoughts on this behaviour?
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Ground-feeding tui, common or unusual?

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Sat Feb 02, 2019 9:13 pm


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