A titipounamu family affair at Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre

A trip to Pūkaha in the Wairarapa last week lead to one of my most fascinating bird encounters ever!

As I was strolling around the stunning native bush listening to the birdsong I stumbled upon a titipounamu / rifleman nestbox that was absolutely buzzing with activity. Out of habit, and curiosity I stopped to have a look at the activity around the nestbox and immediately sensed that there was more going on than just typical ‘parents feeding their nestlings’ behaviour.

For context - I have been volunteering at Zealandia Ecosanctuary in Wellington since 2019 helping the conservation team monitor the local titipounamu population. This season I have been much more hands on with the nest monitoring process, which involves checking on nest building stages, checking for eggs and chicks, and watching parents behaviour around nests. Titipounamu are cavity nesters and readily use nestboxes that are provided for them, which makes them a great subject for monitoring.

Now, back at Pūkaha I identified one adult female and one adult male taking food to their nestlings inside the nestbox, pretty standard parental behaviour. Then, I noticed a juvenile male titipounamu was calmly foraging near the nestbox. This piqued my interest, as from my experience with the titipounamu at Zealandia, any other bird near an active nestbox would be immediately chased away by protective parents. Curious, I stood further back and watched the activity from a safe distance without disturbing the birds so I could watch this unfold naturally.

Through my lens I kept an eager eye on the nestbox entrance, waiting to see if the young male was going to interact with it. He hovered around the nestbox but didn’t go in, then out of nowhere a female juvenile arrived, and without hesitation, entered the nestbox and delivered food to the nestlings inside.

As I watched this activity unfold I saw multiple visits to the nestbox from both parents, the juvenile female and eventually the juvenile male. At one point there was a queue of birds forming to take food to the nestlings! This parenting technique is pretty genius, by employing older juveniles to help feed the nestlings the parents only have to do half the work and also the juveniles get experience feeding chicks as well as bonus time with the adults.

This co-operative feeding behaviour is something that I have seen mentioned in many articles about titipounamu, but I had never seen in person. I haven’t seen photographic evidence of it either, so I was really happy that I managed to capture this exciting event on camera. At Zealandia, parents of nestlings are typically aggressive towards any other birds (or humans) that get close to their nest so I’ve always found the thought of any other birds trying to help quite an interesting prospect. Titipounamu are only 6 grams but that doesn’t stop them defending their nest from much larger birds like tūī, kingfishers and even moreporks!

Titipounamu are such interesting birds and I find this cooperative feeding behaviour so baffling and fascinating. I have so many questions - how do the parents trust that the older juveniles won’t harm the chicks, did the juveniles leave the territory then come back to help once the chicks hatched from eggs, and what gives the juveniles the urge to feed the nestlings since they’re just learning how to survive themselves? As always nature is a puzzle, and every moment I spend with these birds helps me to understand them better, while also creating more questions at the same time.

I initially wanted to visit Pūkaha to see some birds that I don’t usually see, it’s so ironic and typical of me that I spent the majority of the day watching titipounamu, the birds I spend the most time with in Wellington. I just can’t seem to stay away from them.

It’s important to note that I am trained in nest monitoring. I know these birds very well and I can tell if they’re stressed or upset. I wouldn’t have stayed and watched the nest if my presence was upsetting the birds in any way.