Tui feeding on fruit.

General birdwatching discussion, help with bird identification, and all other things relating to wild birds and birding in NZ that don't fit in one of the other forums.
KiwiDan
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:48 pm

Tui feeding on fruit.

Postby KiwiDan » Fri Sep 07, 2018 5:33 pm

Hi all. Noticed a pair of tui feeding on rotting Mandarins in suburban Hamilton. Has anybody else seen this behaviour?
Davidthomas
Posts: 1310
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:05 am

Re: Tui feeding on fruit.

Postby Davidthomas » Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:15 pm

Yep! It’s pretty common I reckon. Bellbirds will do the same. From what I’ve seen they don’t break into the fruit themselves but they’ll quite happily mop up a kaka or a silver eyes leftovers.
User avatar
zarkov
Posts: 653
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:54 pm
Location: Torbay.

Re: Tui feeding on fruit.

Postby zarkov » Fri Sep 07, 2018 9:41 pm

I use slices of mandarin to attract Tuis to my nectar feeder when I put it out in the autumn.

I'm not sure whether they really like them, or just eat them to spite the Wax Eyes.
User avatar
David Riddell
Posts: 959
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:46 pm

Re: Tui feeding on fruit.

Postby David Riddell » Sat Sep 08, 2018 9:41 am

The tuis around our place are (so far) leaving our citrus alone, but they get stuck into the persimmons in a big way, as do the silvereyes. But then our mandarin and orange trees are quite small, and we tend to pick every available fruit and not leave anything lying around for the birds. There are usually some spare fruit under the grapefruit, which the silvereyes get into (also the possums, though I've caught five in the last couple of weeks and hopefully on top of them for now (EDIT: six as of this morning, this one right beside the grapefruit, so maybe not quite on top of them!)), but haven't so far seen any interest in them from the tuis.
Last edited by David Riddell on Sun Sep 09, 2018 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
zarkov
Posts: 653
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:54 pm
Location: Torbay.

Re: Tui feeding on fruit.

Postby zarkov » Sat Sep 08, 2018 5:51 pm

My Tuis like their mandarins peeled.

Return to “General Birding Discussion”