The tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) is a medium-sized bird native to New Zealand. It is blue, green, and bronze coloured with a distinctive white throat tuft (poi). It is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand, and the only species in the genus Prosthemadera. It is one of the largest species in the diverse Australasian honeyeater family Meliphagidae, and one of two living species of that family found in New Zealand, the other being the New Zealand bellbird (Anthornis melanura). The tūī has a wide distribution in the archipelago, ranging from the subtropical Kermadec Islands to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, as well as the main islands.

Taxonomy

Europeans first encountered the tūī in 1770 at Queen Charlotte Sound on the north coast of New Zealand's South Island during Captain James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Specimens were brought back to England and an engraving of a tūī by the English naturalist Peter Brown, which he called "The New Zeland creeper", was published in 1776. The tūī was seen on all three of Cook's voyages. In 1782 the English ornithologist John Latham included the tūī as the "poë bee-eater" in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham described a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London. No author had introduced a scientific name, but when in 1788 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, he included the tūī with a short description, coined the binomial name Merops novaeseelandiae and cited the publications by Brown, Cook and Latham. The tūī is now the only species placed in the genus Prosthemadera that was introduced in 1840 by the English zoologist George Gray. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek prosthema meaning "appendage" with dera meaning "neck".

Two subspecies are recognised: The plural is tūī in modern New Zealand English, or ngā tūī in Māori usage; some speakers still use the '-s' suffix to produce the Anglicised form tūīs to indicate plurality, but this practice is becoming less common. For many years the prevailing spelling was tui without the macrons that indicate long vowels, but spelling Māori loanwords with macrons is now common in New Zealand English. The International Ornithologists' Union (IOC), which has a policy of not using accents, lists Tui as the bird's English name. Early European colonists called it the parson bird or mocking-bird but these names are no longer used.

The closest living relative to tūī is the New Zealand bellbird; genetic analysis indicates its ancestor diverged from a lineage that gave rise to the New Zealand and Chatham bellbirds around 5 million years ago. The cladogram below shows this relationship:

Description

The tūī is a large honeyeater, in length. The Chatham Islands subspecies is larger on average than the nominate subspecies, and heavier. Males tend to be heavier than females. Nominate males weigh between , and females . Males of the Chatham subspecies are and females .

At first glance the bird appears completely black except for a small tuft of white feathers at its neck and a small white wing patch, causing it to resemble a parson in clerical attire. On closer inspection (see image) it can be seen that tūī have brown feathers on the back and flanks, a multicoloured iridescent sheen that varies with the angle from which the light strikes them, and a dusting of small, white-shafted feathers on the back and sides of the neck that produce a lacy collar.<gallery mode="packed" widths="140" heights="140">

File:Tui adult and young.jpg|Painting of adult and young tūī

File:Tui flight 01.jpg|Several photos showing a tūī in flight

File:Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) Tiritiri Matangi 2.jpg

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Distribution and habitat

Tūī are native to New Zealand, and are found throughout the country, particularly the North Island, the west and south coasts of the South Island, Stewart Island / Rakiura and the Chatham Islands, where an endangered sub-species particular to these islands exists. Other populations live on Raoul Island in the Kermadecs, and in the Auckland Islands (where, with the New Zealand bellbird, it is the most southerly species of honeyeater). Traditionally, Māori ate tūī that had been preserved in calabashes or gourds. Populations have declined considerably since European settlement, mainly as a result of widespread habitat destruction and predation by mammalian invasive species.

Nonetheless, the species is considered secure and has made recoveries in some areas, particularly after removal of livestock has allowed vegetation to recover. Predation by introduced species remains a threat, particularly brushtail possums (which eat eggs and chicks), cats, stoats, the common myna (which competes with tūī for food and sometimes takes eggs), blackbirds, and rats.

The powered flight of tūī is quite loud as they have developed short wide wings, giving excellent maneuverability in the dense forest they prefer, but requiring rapid flapping. They can be seen to perform a mating display of rising at speed in a vertical climb in clear air, before stalling and dropping into a powered dive, then repeating.

Breeding

The large untidy shallow cup-shaped nest is built by both sexes, but the female does most of the work. The eggs usually have a pale pink or white background with blotches of pale red mostly at the larger end. The clutch is usually 4 eggs and the average size of an eggs is . The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 14 days. Both sexes feed the young and remove the faecal sacs. The chicks fledge after around 20 days. The parents continue to feed the fledglings for another couple of weeks. The birds are nidicolous.

Songs and calls

Tūī are known for their noisy, unusual, sometimes soulful calls, different for each individual, that combine bellbird-like notes with clicks, cackles, timber-like creaks and groans, and wheezing sounds. They also resemble parrots in their ability to clearly imitate human speech, and were trained by Māori to replicate complex speech. They also re-create sounds like glass shattering, car alarms, classical music and advertising jingles. Tūī song also exhibits geographical, microgeographic, seasonal, sex and individual variation. Tūī will also sing at night, especially around the full moon period.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="140" caption="Tūī">

File:Tūī feeding on Harakeke nectar (6570554993).jpg|Tūī feeding on harakeke

File:Tui standing on top of kowhai in full flower.jpg|Tūī on kōwhai

File:Juvenile tui perched on a branch, singing.jpg|Juvenile tūī

File:Tui perched on top of kowhai branch full of flowers with green background.jpg|Tūī on kōwhai

File:Tui feeding upside down.jpg|Tūī feeding on red hot poker

File:A Tui Peeking Through the Kowhai Flowers.jpg|Tūī amongst kōwhai

File:Tui 06.jpg|Feathers fluffed up and calling

File:Juvenile tui being fed by parent.jpg|Parent feeding juvenile

File:Tui vs kaka.ogv|Tūī defending a food source from a much larger kākā parrot

File:Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae vocalizations.ogv|A short video of tūī vocalisations

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References

Sources

  • Prosthemaderas Novæ Zealandiæ — (Tui or Parson Bird) From A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Buller
  • Tui – New Zealand native land birds Department of Conservation
  • Kiwi Wildlife tours Sound gallery (MP3 link) Comparison can be made with the bellbird song through this page.