School Holiday Tui Backyard Feeder

School holidays are here again which is a great time to tackle a few DIY projects with the kids.

This one is fairly simple to make, and it has the added bonus of bringing beautiful Tui into the yard for hours of bird watching and song interpretation. I love listening to the two Tui who come every day and sit up in our palm tree, they each make distinctive melodic sounds.

Tui have two voice boxes, this enables them to make a vast range of sounds, they’re even known to mimic human speech! Being fairly independent birds you’ll rarely see them in large numbers unless there’s an abundance of food, they do like to spend time with a mate or friend so seeing them in pairs is common.

They also contribute to the pollination of many native plants and trees throughout New Zealand by distributing seeds.

For this feeder, you’ll need small dark plastic containers about 3cm in diameter and 5cm deep, some red or yellow gaffer tape, rose water, sugar, and warm water.

Watch The Bug Boy’s Tui Feeder video below to find out how to put it all together.

nzbirds.com has plenty of information regarding how and what to feed a variety of NZ birds. Click here.