papa whiskey Tui

I love the way Phill  used his excellent music skills to compose and perform this piece of music Papa Whisky Tui. Those who know the NATO alphabet will see the PW connection here. I hope this video with a Tui  that hangs around my neighbourhood playing a roll in it does Phill’s tune justice. Many books say that Tui's are usually solitary.  It’s place in the forest is among the treetops where the flowers and fruit are borne.

Tui  they fly at great speeds. Even though several Tui may feed in the same tree they have clearly defined territories. Outside of the breeding season they become partially nomadic and travel to towns and rural gardens and forest patches in search of good sources of nectar and fruit. Some birds regularly occupy each year summer breeding and winter feeding territories that can be 20 plus kilometers apart.

Although the Tui primary food source is nectar, they will hawk large insects. Tui will jump around and beat bushes to disturb stick insects and cicadas. This  bird, is called by many names other than Tui or Koko, was of great importance to Maori and there are many stories about this relationship in the literature. Apart from potted Tui being a favourite food, they were very often kept in cages and trained to speak and even welcome people to a marae.      ( Marae is a courtyard of a Maori meeting house, a place used as a social or ceremonial forum.) Many of these birds were famous and even fought over.

The ornithologist Olive commented on the Tui pugnacity and courage and wondered if perhaps this character has been the cause of their being attacked and sometimes killed by companies of blackbirds and starlings. However, the Tui has also been known to kill the birds it pursues     

Thanks Jim