Singing about spring

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 14

Singing about spring

When the first golden flowers appear on the kowhai you will know that spring has come, and if you listen you may hear the bell-like notes of a tui or a bellbird. These native birds have similar feeding habits, and the kowhai is a host to both species. It is a native tree which grows quite prolifically in the forests and on the plains. Small by comparison with our kauri giants, its slim trunk

grows to a height of between seven and 10 metres.

The kowhai is a legume, of the same genus as peas, beans, lupins and the wild gorse and broom that were introduced to New Zealand by the early settlers, perhaps in an attempt to reproduce the rural landscape of their homeland. Its hanging bell-shaped flowers are pollinated by the brush-like tongues of its honey-eating bird visamong them the tuis and the bellbirds. The fruits of the kowhai are the hard seeds encased in shrunken pods which germinate more easily after being soaked in water. Like .the wild gorse

and broom, kowhai trees flourish beside rivers and streams, and they grow well under cultivation in our parks and gardens. Soon we will see their golden splendour and hear the spring songs of the birds that sip their nectar. As the berries and insects of the forests and bush become scarce in winter, an increasing number of tuis and bellbirds leave their natural homes to seek food in the parks and gardens around the cities. They are welcome guests for many people who stock their bird-tables with sweet syrups, honey and fruits to attract these migrants to their gardens, while they wait for the first flowers to appear on

the wattles, eucalypts and kowhais. , Tuis and bellbifds are alike in song and in habits, and seemingly they are compatible with each Other. Blit they are of different species and they differ in appearance. The tuis appear to be darker than they really are, with colours of rich green and purplish blue which shine in the sunlight. They are distinguished by two tufts of white curled feathers on their throats. The bellbirds are olive green with patches of yellow on the sides of their bodies and purple on their heads. The female bellbird is noticeably duller in colour. When the feast provided

by the early flowering trees of the city is over, these native birds return to their homes in the forests and bush, to the native fuschia, rata, rewarewa, kowhai and flax trees to live on their nectars, fruits and the insects that prey on them, until winter comes again.

The partnership of the tui, the bellbird and the kowhai began a long time ago, perhaps before the first of the Maori migrants sighted this land of the long white cloud, and named it Aotearoa. By planting kowhai trees in our gardens we are luring these native bird visitors back to the cities to forge their links anew with the trees that provide the life-

saving nectare they meed so much in the early spring. Let us not betray their : trust, and perhaps in the years to come you will awaken to the glorious dawn chorus of the tuis and bellbirds that so impressed Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist who sailed ' with Captain Cook. j