Tui in a tree

This afternoon I caught this Tui in our Bottle Brush tree. It was rather hard to get a decent focused photo, as the bird kept moving, and I ended up going around the brush with the bird several times, trying to get it in a good position for a photo.

Tuis are common throughout New Zealand in forests, towns and on off-shore islands. They are adaptable and are found not only in native forests, bush reserves and bush remnants but also in suburban areas, particularly in winter if there is a flowering gum about.

These attractive birds can often be heard singing their beautiful melodies long before they are spotted. If you are fortunate to glimpse one you will recognise them by their distinctive white tuft under their throat, which contrasts dramatically with the metallic blue-green sheen to their underlying black colour.

We have had about 23 ml of rain today, with very warm humid conditions. This kind of weather is ideal to get the grass growing, and also help the turnip seed germinate in our last paddock planted about 3 weeks ago.