Backyard birds of New Zealand gardens

Plenty of good birding happens a few metres from the back door. A suburban section with some shrubs, a tree or two and a bit of leaf litter can host a surprising mix of native and introduced birds through the year. Learning who lives there is the best training there is for birding further afield. You get to know calls, shapes and habits without having to travel anywhere.

This field note covers the birds you are most likely to meet in a New Zealand garden. We give the te reo Māori name first, with the English name in brackets, then what to look and listen for.

The native regulars

Tūī (tūī). The tūī is hard to miss: a large, dark honeyeater with a blue-green and bronze sheen in good light and two curly white tufts at the throat, called poi. The song is a loud, complicated mix of tuneful notes with clicks, coughs, grunts and wheezes. Tūī feed mainly on nectar and honeydew. They move around a suburb as different trees come into flower, so kōwhai, flax, pūriri and flowering gums draw them in. They are famously territorial around a good flowering tree and will chase off other birds with a loud whirr of wings. NZ Birds Online's tūī page has recordings worth playing a few times until the song sticks.

Pīwakawaka (fantail). Small, restless and always turning, with a tail that fans open and shut. Fantails eat small insects and often come within a metre or two of people, picking off the flies and moths that a gardener disturbs. Most are the pied form, with a white eyebrow and white edges to the tail. A black form makes up a small share of South Island birds and is rare in the North Island. Listen for a squeaky, repeated "cheet".

Tauhou (silvereye). A small olive-green bird with a neat white ring around the eye. Silvereyes colonised New Zealand from Australia by themselves in the 1850s and are now common nearly everywhere. They eat insects such as aphids, as well as nectar and soft fruit. In winter they move about in noisy flocks, and they visit garden feeders more than any other New Zealand bird.

Riroriro (grey warbler). You will usually hear a grey warbler before you see it. The male sings a long, wavering trill that seems far too loud for a bird this small. They are tiny, grey and constantly moving through the outer foliage, sometimes hovering to pick insects off leaves. The nest is a hanging dome with a side entrance, usually a few metres up. Riroriro are the only mainland host of the pīpīwharauroa (shining cuckoo), which lays its egg in the warbler's nest each spring.

Kererū (New Zealand pigeon). If you hear a heavy "whoosh, whoosh" of wingbeats overhead, look up. Kererū are big, about half a metre long, with a metallic green and bronze head and a clean white front. They eat fruit, leaves and flowers, and they are the main carriers of large native seeds between patches of forest. That makes a fruiting tree in a suburb more valuable than it looks. They are common in many cities now, often sitting on power lines or treetops.

Korimako (bellbird). In much of the South Island and lower North Island, and in sanctuary suburbs, the korimako's liquid, chiming song is part of the dawn chorus. They are olive green, smaller than a tūī, and also feed on nectar. On the Northland and Auckland mainland they are much scarcer, though birds from offshore islands turn up in some places.

The introduced crowd

Most gardens also hold birds brought here in the 1800s. Knowing them helps you pick out the natives quickly.

• Eurasian blackbird. Males are all black with an orange bill; females are dark brown. They turn over leaf litter with loud scuffing.
• Song thrush. Brown with a spotted chest. It repeats each phrase two or three times, which is the easiest way to know it.
• House sparrow. Usually in chattering groups near houses and cafés.
• Common starling. Glossy and speckled, often on lawns in small groups. Starlings are excellent mimics.
• Common myna. Brown with a black head, yellow bill and yellow bare skin around the eye, and white wing patches in flight. Mynas are common in the warmer north, roughly north of 40° South, and scarce further south. They nest in cavities, including house eaves.
• Chaffinch, goldfinch and greenfinch. Finches feed on seeds, often on the ground or in weedy corners.

None of these are "bad birds" to enjoy watching. Some of them, though, compete with natives for food and nest sites, which is one reason to plant for natives rather than feed bread (more on that in a future note on feeders).

When to look and listen

Dawn is the best time of day. The chorus is fullest in spring, from about September, when tūī, riroriro and blackbirds are all singing for territories.

Spring and summer bring nesting. Fantails can raise several broods in a season, and you may see the same pair building again within weeks. Give nests a wide berth and don't trim hedges with an active nest in them.

Autumn is fruit time. Kererū and tūī work through berries, and silvereyes start to flock.

Winter is the best season for watching garden birds in numbers. Natural food is scarcer, so nectar plants that flower in the cold months, such as five-finger, early kōwhai and flowering gums, become magnets. This is also when the national Garden Bird Survey runs. See the survey's results for the trends in recent years: counts of kererū, pīwakawaka, tūī and tauhou have been rising.

Quick identification by sound

Bird	What you hear
Tūī	Rich notes mixed with clicks, coughs and wheezes
Korimako	Clear, chiming, bell-like phrases
Riroriro	A long, thin, wavering trill
Pīwakawaka	A sharp, repeated "cheet"
Kererū	Wingbeats more than voice; a soft "kū" up close
Song thrush	Each phrase repeated two or three times
Blackbird	Mellow, fluting song; loud alarm "chink-chink"

Our tip: record a minute of the dawn chorus on your phone and play it back slowly. You will start to separate the voices within a week or two.

Making a garden better for birds

You don't need a big section. A few changes help most:

1. Plant for year-round food. Mix nectar plants, fruiting shrubs and trees that flower in winter. Local, ecosourced natives do best.
2. Leave some mess. Leaf litter and mulch feed the insects that fantails and grey warblers depend on.
3. Keep cats in at night and put a bell on the collar.
4. Watch your windows. Plant favourite trees where you can see them from inside, but not right against the glass, as reflections cause strikes.
5. Deal with rats and possums. Both take eggs and chicks. A trap or two in a back corner makes a real difference. We cover this in our note on backyard predator control.

Keep a garden list

Start a simple list: date, species, number, and anything you notice (feeding, singing, nesting). After a year you'll have your own record of the seasons. When winter comes round, put an hour aside for the Garden Bird Survey. It's one of the easiest ways to make your backyard birdwatching count for science.