I always look forward to the Kowhai flowering in the spring and often spend some time sitting up on the roof photographing the Tuis. The tree hosts a territorial male who initially seems to defend it against all comers but then will tolerate another bird who I assume is his mate and then defends it against any other Tui that dares to land. Episodically a large gang will arrive and manage to steal a bit of nectar while he is outnumbered and busy chasing individual birds. Today a gang of about 30 arrived and kept him occupied for some time until he had cleared his tree of interlopers. We had a largely grey day which let me catch the female bird against a relatively clean background which I could push to white by overexposing the metered reading by 1.3 stops. Nikon D800 with 200-400VR 1/1600s f5.6 ISO 800.
The flight image is the male returning to the tree from a a defensive foray 1/1000s f5.6 ISO 800
Edin
31 Oct 2012Up on the roof again? These are great. I don’t suppose they’ll still be around when I get home!
tony
31 Oct 2012Just standing on the outside table! Blossoms nearly finished for this year
Pingback: Tuis in the Kowhai