Feeding wax eyes is simple. A small deep sided dish will do.
Tui and Bellbirds require a hummingbird feeder. You can get one from the Forest and Bird stall at the market or from Tiritiri Matangi shop. Hygene is most important to prevent cross infections. The bottles and feeders need to be thoroughly cleaned every couple of days with some disinfectant, making sure to remove traces of this afterwards.
One cup of RAW brown sugar dissolved in two litres of water is the correct mix to use. Don't overdo the sugar or the birds will get the runs. Keep it cool until it's used to prevent it fermenting.
The wax eyes will catch on faster if you also put out half oranges, cut across the equator, held down in some way and put the sugar water near the oranges. If you put the feeder in a dish of water you will keep the ants off.
The tui may take a couple of months to find the feeder, but when they do, they will defend it from all comers. The wax eyes will help to attract the tui's attention. If you still want to see the wax eyes you'll need to move their dish somewhere else or they wont get a look in. The wax eyes are really cute.
Of course, if you're near Whakanewha Park you may be lucky enough to see Bellbirds in your garden. If you have a cat it's best not to encourage birds to feed in your garden. If you don't have a cat then maybe you will be lucky enough to see bellbirds come to your feeder, but, any tui, being very territorial, will see them off if the feeder in not in a box with restricted entrance holes no more than 5cm wide and 6 high. You can see the design of the boxes by going down to Dotties Lane at the park and taking a look at them there. You will also see the bellbirds coming to these boxes if you're patient, best time of day is late afternoon.
The Hamilton bellbird release has some good info and pictures on the site below. Have a look
http://www.ew.govt.nz/projects/Hamilton-Halo/Bellbirds-korimako/
No comments:
Post a Comment