Return of the ngirungiru

When I first moved here in January 2011 I was entertained by a male ngirungiru (tomtit) who sat on the seat outside the ranchslider and watched me through the glass (see blogs in Feb and March 2011). He'd call out early in the morning and would swoop down to watch me working in the garden. I think he was just a young-un as he had a smudgy yellow breast and maybe he was feeling lonely after leaving the nest. I don't feed the birds so our interaction wasn't prompted by food - it seemed a genuine curiosity on both our parts. Although there are a number of ngirungiru around here, I hadn't had another curious fledgling until now - no doubt the older ones are too busy building nests and feeding young to have time on their hands!

So it was with great delight to have another wee, smudgy-breasted bird take an interest in what I'm doing. The wooden seat outside the ranchslider is spotted with bird poo, testament to the number of hours he sits on it looking through the ranchslider. Another favoured place is the stainless steel rubbish bin underneath the outside table; I'm sure he's looking to play with the bird that appears when he flies down to it and he spends ages 'cheeping' at his reflection and looks quite stunned when he flutters up to the top and finds the 'bird' has disappeared. I spent a lot of my three day weekend being entertained by his antics; here's some photos and I'll put up some video footage when I get time to do some editing.

He has a number of calls; the cheeping that he does to his reflection, an 'oyly-oyly' warble and also 3-5 loud whistles. He's often answered by other ngirungiru - I wonder if they are his parents/siblings. Maybe his Dad has told him stories about his youth and about the strange woman who talked to him and he's just checking it out for himself!