Four more (titipounamu chicks)

Well I’ve been a bit slack on the blog front lately, so I have a lot to share! Firstly I’m starting with my famous little titipounamu family, and I’m pleased to say that they did it again! The Te Ahumairangi titipounamu (rifleman) pair successfully raised another clutch of chicks!

After witnessing the first clutch of chicks fledge in early November I spent some time watching the chicks as they grew and learned to forage for themselves. Those chicks started dispersing very quickly, which is pretty normal for the first clutch. I started looking for signs that the parents were thinking about a second nest and it didn’t take long for that to happen. While watching the first chicks exploring their territory I would keep an eye out for the Mum bird especially and see what areas she was showing interest in, as she ultimately chooses the nest site. By mid-november only one of the first clutch of chicks was still in the area and one lucky day I managed to spot the parents building their second nest! 

I was so happy to discover the nest, and as the parents were carrying in leaf skeletons I knew the nest was in its early stages. Finding natural nests is really tricky and I was quite proud of myself for discovering it, all the things I’ve learned over the past few years at Zealandia have really come in handy while learning things about this little family.

Over the next week I saw the pair carrying in feathers, which showed that the nest was almost complete then one morning I arrived and only saw the male in the area, after a little while the female popped out of the nest and was acting quite energetic, this is usually a sign that she’s in the process of egg laying!

The timing of this nest was a bit tricky for me, as it was the middle of shopping season and I was really busy sending out calendar orders, but I made sure I went to check on the birds at critical times so I could have an idea of the stages they were at. I managed to determine  when the pair first started incubating the new batch of eggs and checked on them a few times throughout incubation to make sure they were still safe and sound. Then in mid-December I discovered their eggs were starting to hatch, this was very exciting and meant that I could try to be there when the chicks would fledge!

I went up north to visit family over Christmas knowing that I would be back in time for fledging day and once I was back I started checking on the birds early every morning hoping to see signs of fledging. The first day of nest check I knew that it was much too early, the chicks didn’t sound anywhere near loud enough and the parents seemed very much in a nice feeding routine, but a few days later the chicks were sounding much louder and much more ready to leave the nest.

Since I knew the chicks were almost ready to fledge I started getting up earlier so I could be at the nest at 6am as the sun was rising. It was incredibly peaceful in the forest by myself early in the dark calm morning listening to the birds wake up. Then early one morning it started to happen, I saw movement in the nest, a little face start to peep out, then suddenly he emerged, a young male titipounamu, he clung onto the tree trunk before floating to the ground, where he started for a couple of minutes. Eventually he started to claw his way back up and clumsily climbed to the very top of the tree where he sat and took in the view. During the process of this first chick fledging the parents were elsewhere, so when they arrived back to the nest naturally they were in shock, the Dad bird started pecking at the fledgling, checking him out as if he didn’t know who he was.

Half an hour passed since the first chick fledged, and I sat patiently waiting for the rest of the chicks to emerge. Eventually the rest of them popped out, there were three more and they were all males!

I can’t describe how special it is to witness these tiny birds seeing the world for the first time. It is simply amazing to watch and one thing I’m especially happy about is that the chicks didn’t even notice me huddled behind my camera being as quiet as possible. I never ever want my presence to be a burden on the birds, and I wanted their entrance into the outside world to be as natural as it would have been if I wasn’t there.

Here is the special footage I managed to capture, enjoy!