BIRD-LOVERS’ REWARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1939, Page 5

BIRD-LOVERS’ REWARD

KOWHAI HIGHWAY FOR TUIS. Recently a resident of Kelburn Parade (within ten minutes’ walk from the centre of Wellington City) had the delightful spectacle of a pair of tuig in his garden. They had come for a feast of nectar offered by the golden chalices of Kowhai. The observer’s impression was that the birds had probably flown by stages from the Botanical Gardens. The slopes of this public reserve have many Kowhai trees. A tui following the trail of nectar would be led into Kelburn where many residents have kowhai trees. ' Another reward for the planting of trees and shrubs in Kelburn is in the presence of fantails and grey warblers which now have suitable places for nesting and foraging. Many pairs of white-eyes also raise their families there instead of further afield as they used to do before the trees and shrubs grew up. The files of the Forest and Bird Protection Society show that manytowns now have visits from tuis be-’ cause the people have planted many trees and shrubs which yield nectar or berries. There is plenty cf cheerful evidence of tuis and bell-birds — especially tuis—having adapted themselves to the new scheme of things, especially in places where stands of native bush give them bases for flights to gardens and plantations which supply food. Even the common pinus insignis has been honoured by a pair of tuis as a nesting place.