Tongue of the Bellbird

Anthornis melanura

I was thrilled when I captured the long brush tongue of a waxeye. Today the bellbird revealed hers. These tongues are just the thing for collecting nectar from the flowers. Both species love the sweetened water I put out for them, but the waxeyes are going crazy for the fat I hang in the plum tree. More and more are coming to eat it. A lump that lasted a week for most of the winter is now gone in three days. There were more than thirty of them at one time today. I think that very cold snap we had in June killed off a significant number of insects, which would have supplied fat and protein.

Birds claiming territory in my garden at present are: the bellbird, waxeyes, grey warbler, starlings, blackbird, song thrush, chaffinch, and dunnock. There is also a flock of house sparrows. Only the first three are native to New Zealand.