Surrounded by birds again

I couldn’t resist going for a walk this morning at Otari-Wilton’s Bush to try and spot the patchy riroriro (Grey Warbler) from last week. Sadly I didn’t have any luck with that one particular bird, but the forest was full of other birds. Walking through the bush at Otari I heard hundreds of tauhou (Waxeyes) and atleast 20 pīwakawaka (Fantails). There were lots of other birds around too, a flock of kākāriki were chatting away and the usual kererū and tūī were perched in the trees enjoying the sun. I also saw and heard kākā and riroriro, they seemed to be super active, especially because it was a stunning day, and we’d had some rain recently. Days after rain seem to be the best for birdwatching in my opinion!

I love seeing and hearing all the usual birds, but my ears pricked up when I heard the unmistakable call of the korimako (Bellbird). I tried to figure out where it was coming from, and eventually got closer and closer until I finally laid eyes on it! It was a female, they are usually more timid than male korimako and harder to see, but this one didn’t seem to be too wary of me, and was even on the ground in front of me several times. She seemed to be annoyed by the tauhou though and chased them away if they came too close to her. I thought she had a mate, but later realised it was another female, who was rather scruffy looking. I’m assuming the scruffy one is a youngster coming into her adult plumage.

It was very exciting to be able to spend some time with these beautiful birds, and I’ve really missed being surrounded by birdsong. At times there were so many birds I didn’t know where to look! I snapped quite a few photos of the korimako, she was very acrobatic, often stretching and hanging upside down to get to the flowers and nectar. I’ll share my photos of the other birds in another post, I wanted to dedicate this post to the humble korimako/Bellbird as she really made my day!