A bird in the hand is worth tui in the bush

[sbisson]

On our first trip to New Zealand we only saw tui once, deep in a dark rain forest near Rotorua. This time it was different, as the native flax was in flower, and the beautiful blue-green birds with the white neck tufts were taking advantage of the season to eat pollen and drink nectar. Their strange call twittered and boomed around the forests and flashes of bright colour leapt across the roads.

Here's one we saw at Marahau, on the edge of the Abel Tasman National national park.





Beautiful birds.

Comments

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

I adore tuis (both of those are gorgeous shots, btw). There's one that hangs around in the big trees near the building I work in. And there are bellbirds, too. Don't often see them, but I hear them a lot.