Post #1769619

2025-05-24 10:04 UTC

I was fortunate to spend today at Ōnuku, near Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula, NZ, helping the tūī team to catch and band tūī. This is part of the ongoing effort to understand and manage the tūī on Banks Peninsula. The species was lost from the Peninsula due to forest habitat loss and pest mammals. Community restoration work has been reversing both of these and a new tūī population was kick-started by the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, with the translocation of birds from the Maud Island sanctuary in 2009 and 2010. Thanks to the annual banding efforts, and the local community reporting the banded birds when they see them, we know that the population is now slowly growing and expanding. All banding is done by registered Level 3 bird banders. My job today was to help spot the mist nets when the bird banders were busy with caught birds. #nz #tui #birds #conservation

Replies (3)

@joncounts@mastodon.nz 2025-05-25 05:20

News from the tūī catch team today, working in an Akaroa garden on Smith Street, is that 15 more unbanded tūī were caught and banded, and three previously banded birds were re-caught and released. Those included Trevor, the oldest known tūī on Banks Peninsula. He was banded as an adult back in April 2013 when he was already at least two years old. He’ll be 14 or 15 years old now and is likely to be one of the first generation of wild birds that descended from the Maud Island tūī that were released at Hinewai in 2009 and 2010. #birds #nz #conservation #tui

Open ##4327913
@va2lam@mastodon.nz 2025-05-24 19:50

@joncounts@mastodon.nz having just gotten back to Pōneke it's been great to have the tūī and kākā around...

Open ##4327918
@akoaroha@mastodon.social 2025-05-24 22:10

@joncounts@mastodon.nz Ka rawe! What a fantastic experience! 🤗

Open ##4327922