TUE, JAN
8
The
beautiful bird was photographed in a kōwhai tree near Taumarunui by Simon
Rapley in 2017, and his image was shared online in a native animals Facebook
group on Saturday - to the delight of many.
Mr
Rapley, who works in foresty, said he came across a large group of about 40
tūī flocking around a kōwhai tree, and saw what he initially thought was a
dove flying among them.
"I
just thought ... that doesn't seem right, because tūī are quite aggressive
birds and they wouldn't tolerate a dove hanging out with them - so I got a pair
of glasses out and had a look, and it was a tūī," Mr Rapley said.
"It's
something you don't see every day."
Mr Rapley
said the white tūī seemed to be quite aggressive compared to the other birds.
"At
one point it was in a tree by itself and any other tūī that came near it, it
chased them off ... I just assumed that it might have some kind of weakness due
to its colouring, but no, it seems to be a pretty hardy individual," he
said.
Mr Rapley
said he saw the same bird in the same location both in 2016 and in 2017 during
the spring, but had not seen it in 2018, as he had not spent as much time in
the area while the kōwhai were flowering.
Guy
Tichborne, another photographer and bird watcher, shared a striking image of a
pure white fantail he photographed north of Auckland last month.
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