Silvereyes in the Garden

Forest and Bird, Issue 313, 1 August 2004, Page 16

Silvereyes in the Garden

GORDON ELL.

—GORDON ELL

—GEOFF MOON

GEOFF MOON photographs the most common

native bird in the garden. Story,

hey rustle through the garden announcing themselves in a continuous chorus of bird chatter. The shrubs vibrate as little flocks of silvereyes hunt and peck their way through the foliage in search of food. Silvereyes are the most common of native birds to visit the garden. Mature gardens offer them as good a home as the fringes of the bush. They can find food aplenty — they are omnivorous feeders — and find shelter both for roosting and nesting in the cover of modest urban trees. With their attractive white-encircled eyes, silvereyes have been given several common names including the descriptive white-eye and waxeye. The Maori name of tahou (meaning stranger) is a reflection of

their comparatively recent selfintroduction to New Zealand. The first silvereyes were reported here in 1832, but large numbers found their way here in 1856 from Australia. There are some six subspecies of silvereye in Australia — they vary in their chest colouring — and the New Zealand invasion was from Tasmanian stock. This subspecies, Zosterops lateralis, has a migratory habitat, moving in winter from Tasmania across Bass Strait to eastern Australia. Among the theories about how the invasion happened here — it would take only two or three days for birds to be blown across the Tasman in a high wind — is the belief some hitched a ride in the rigging of a sailing ship. While there are

accounts of silvereyes settling on ships at sea, the numbers that reached New Zealand in 1856 were much greater than this method would allow, and sufficient to establish breeding populations in many places. Part of the reason for the success of these birds is their catholic feeding habits. They take insects and other invertebrates, along with nectar and fruit for feed. In the garden they can find berries from native and introduced shrubs, nectar from plants such as kowhai and puriri, and a host of insects and other small creatures including spiders, caterpillars, flies and bugs. Their fondness for aphids early earned them another nickname — ‘blight-birds’. In the forest, flocks may form about trees in fruit, particularly the giant podocarps,

but the birds can be found anywhere in sheltering vegetation, from sea level to the natural treeline. They are most noticeable, however, in the garden. Little flocks follow a regular route from garden to garden, favouring the cover of shrubs such as coprosma, particularly in berry, and Australian nectar-bearing shrubs such as bottle-brush and banksias. In winter, they make an interesting study at the feeder or bird table. The omnivorous nature of the silvereye is reflected in what attracts them. Besides their natural food, they will eat soaked

bread, old fruit, lard and scraps of cooked meat. They can be a delight to watch as the birds in a flock have a detectable ‘pecking’ order. Birds waiting to feed will flutter their wings and threaten their companions, calling continuously. The boldest male eats first, sometimes defending his position against other contenders. Probably the best way to enjoy watching this behaviour is to establish a feeding point in view of the house. The problem with bird tables is that they need to be scrubbed regularly or they become a place where birds pick up infections from each

other. Instead, stick a piece of apple on a nail in a fence or tree trunk. Another feeding method is to put a little lard in a plastic-netting bag or a pottle suspended from a branch. Silvereyes will battle for their turn on adjacent branches. Then they demonstrate their agility as they swing from the food, often hanging upside down to reach their meal. Another advantage of this suspended ‘feeder’ is that more aggressive birds, particularly sparrows and starlings, won't take the food as they usually don’t like the way it swings.

Of course, a well-placed bird bath will attract the silvereyes which use it to groom all through the year. Silvereyes also drink sugar water — artificial nectar set on the bird table — but keep it fresh and use sugar in the mix, not honey which can spread bee diseases. The best time to feed silvereyes is in the winter when there is less food in the garden. It is also the season when birds from the higher country come to warmer places, or are in need of supplementary feeding. In inland Canterbury, for example, flocks of silvereyes can come down from the ranges and feed in country gardens on the plains, even though the surrounding open country is not their normal habitat. (There is evidence that some silvereyes in New Zealand have not lost their habit of migrating locally, as do many of their ancestral race in Australia, moving to warmer areas in cold winters.) Make sure feeding in winter is regular or the increased number of birds in the garden will starve. Cease feeding in spring when birds are nesting, as the young will benefit from being fed natural food. Silvereyes are among the few birds that can live their whole life cycle in the garden (or a series of adjacent gardens). They nest in shrubs from as low as a metre off the ground, usually in the outer foliage. The nest is suspended by bindings to adjacent twigs and is rather delicate; a cup woven from grass and light fibres, softened with moss, lichens and spider web. There are usually three pale blue eggs, but broods of

up to five occur. A pair of silvereyes may raise two or three broods each sprng and summer, from eggs laid from September to February. The adult pair stay together from season to season and both take their turn brooding on the nest and feeding the young. Young birds cease to follow their parents after two or three weeks, becoming independent feeders, but flock with others in winter. Silvereyes are a great introduction to the fascination of birdwatching because their group behaviour is so obvious and easy to observe. They soon become a popular feature of the bird garden, but they are less popular with orchardists and winegrowers. Silvereyes can be a pest because of their habit of eating fruit. As a result they are one of the few native birds to be only partially protected. Commercial growers can get permission (from the DirectorGeneral of Conservation) to kill them in certain circumstances, under the Wildlife Act. Their defenders argue the effect on crops is generally on fruit already damaged by other birds. Winegrowers take a different view and not all are willing to protect their grapes with netting. In the home garden the damage they might be able to do is, generally, minimal.

is the author of Encouraging

Birds in the New Zealand Garden, and its successor, Enjoying Nature in the New Zealand Garden.

is a pioneer of nature

photography in New Zealand and author of many books about birds.