Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

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.
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Bozz
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby Bozz » Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:30 am

boneywhitefoot wrote:its better than tramping all over the Pureora Forest Park chasing Kokako tui


That sounds like HEAVEN by comparison
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby boneywhitefoot » Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:58 am

not when you are sprinting all over creation with heavy camera gear up and down hills, only to find that the bird calling is yet another stinking tui lol
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Bozz
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby Bozz » Thu Nov 22, 2018 10:13 am

boneywhitefoot wrote:not when you are sprinting all over creation with heavy camera gear up and down hills, only to find that the bird calling is yet another stinking tui lol


I'd still infinitely rather be doing that than having my head needled with one metallic, pulsing tone, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day with something that sounds like a stuck record of a digitised, squeaking piece of broken metal (if you can manage to imagine such a thing) *pass my pack and boots I'm coming down to the Waikato to chase kokako*
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby boneywhitefoot » Thu Nov 22, 2018 11:41 am

hahahahahahaha
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby Robyn » Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:31 pm

Maybe the Tui one note call is around October to end December. I think this "annoying" one note call is to rally the young ones. A most beautiful thing to hear is all the young Tui leaving this area to go out "flatting". A group of them fly out of this area all singing a chorus - quite beautiful. When we leave our place, say 30kms in a straight line, the birds know us. Strange but true and I have never fed them.
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Bozz
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby Bozz » Sun Jan 27, 2019 10:30 am

We moved house in December, I (stupidly) hoped that we would leave the one-note tui behind. No. The tui down here (5 mins from our old house) are copying the plovers (my layperson's conclusion), who screetch a one note yipe yipe yipe at dusk. So it is still a monotone, 1 note call but higher pitched, faster and more staccato. We have also in the last couple of days gained a "tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock" 2 toned broken record bird, who has actually chosen the tallest tree at the back of the bush on OUR property and is doing it all day. Like ALL day. It's out there doing it as I write.

I now feel like a. cutting the tree down, b. killing the bird or c. killing myself. Most likely I'll just end up in a lunatic asylum.

I think the bulk of my frustration comes from NEVER reading anywhere about this phenomena. That tui are wonderful, yes, but that they can also drive you nuts if they get stuck in one of these broken record cycles of only 1 or 2 notes. The overwhelming majority of information about tui is all about how lovely, wonderful, hauntingly beautiful their calls are and how intelligent they are, yet what we are experiencing is the complete opposite of that.

I've recorded these latest incarnations of monotonous horror. Hopefully you people can hear them through these Dropbox links:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nprssgcksyc2n ... 1.m4a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5sdw26jzmq1y4 ... s.m4a?dl=0
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Mon Jan 28, 2019 1:19 pm

I think the problem is you don't have enough of them. Imagine there were 50, 100 of them. Think bellbird chorus.
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby Steps » Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:16 am

Our last home of 27yrs.. moved few months ago... had a huge banskia tree and eventually 1 tui
The single call, 1st bird to wake (just before sunrise.. up last to go to sleep just after sun rise
Then our karaka, puriri, totara and many other trees grew, bringing in more birds and more tui.
Once we had more than a couple then because a huge variety of calls....aerobatic fights, even dropping out of the tree, confident in their fly path , often taping us on the head with a wing while in the garden or walking out the back door.
Then they started nesting in local trees and little suburban park....whole families of tui..
Something we where going to miss along with the fantails etc.
New home..And yes.. tuis nesting in the trees over the back section..youngsters doing their squabble aerobatics, fan tails fantails.
And along with fantails flicking thru the deck area, the tuis hanging off the 5 fingers feeding 2 to 3 ms away while we have a cup tea.

If have single tuis, increase the food supply.. trees get more and the whole situation changes dramatically.
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby KiwiDan » Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:10 pm

Wow....Steps. I think what your saying is true... Have you ever listened to a flock of bell miner in Aussie.... Now that is ear piercing!
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Re: Repetitive, one-note tui call driving us nuts

Postby Bozz » Fri Feb 01, 2019 9:24 am

In our case, it is not the loudness but the fact that there is only one individual, it's the only sound on our huge property (apart from the cicadas) and it just sounds so un-tuilike (to me anyway) and repetitive. It's a peculiar "ticko ticko *pause* ticko ticko" sound. Once I noticed it, I couldn't unhear it :x
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