Bird of the Month – October 2016

(By Jo Halley)

Kereru Woodpigeon Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae

 Also named kuku, kukupa

This is the time of year when kereru can be seen in greatest numbers on the Coast, as they feed on flowering broom, kowhai, mahoewao, wineberry, willow, and plum trees.

A handsome bird with glossy greeny-bronze head and back, and snow-white breast and shoulders, the kereru is one of our largest native birds. It has a wingspan of 75cm, and weighs up to 630g. They once formed an important food source for Maori, but the widespread felling of their preferred podocarp forest led to a decline in numbers. Kereru have been fully protected since 1921. Nowadays the main threats to their survival and increase, are introduced predators (such as stoats, wild cats and rats), collisions on the road or into windows, and illegal hunting.

Kereru breed mainly in spring and early summer. They build an untidy twiggy platform in a tree, where the female lays just one egg. Both parents share incubation and rearing duties, and the chick leaves the nest after about a month or longer.

Although the woodpigeon is long-lived, to 15-20 years, this slow reproductive rate hampers their ability to increase populations. Kereru play a vital role in our forest ecology, as they spread seed from the fruit they eat, over wide areas as they forage. They are the only bird now big enough to eat and disperse miro and matai seed, so are indispensable for native forest regeneration.

I once had a small tree revegetation nursery I called Tutaekereru (Pigeon-poo). I collected native seedlings from under radiata pine plantations. (The seedlings were otherwise doomed during eventual forestry felling operations.) Kereru and other birds would feed in the adjacent native forest remnants, and then perch in the pine trees. The poo-fertilised seed they dropped while roosting, would germinate beautifully in the pine needles beneath, which were then easily lifted for potting up.

Kereru are quiet birds, except for the distinctive loud whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, of their wingbeats. They sometimes call, a soft “ooo”, especially heard in spring. They show off beautifully with a display flight, a high steep ascent, followed by a long swooping fall. As I’m writing this, a kereru is sitting on a branch in the rain in our garden. It rolled over on one side to let the rain “wash” underneath, and now has rolled onto the other side. We have a resident pair, they nest close by in a douglas fir tree every year.

If you want to attract kereru to your place, there are some fast-growing shrubs and small trees they like, that you could plant. They include coprosmas, wineberry, broadleaf, kowhai, mahoewao, cabbage trees, also non-native tree lucernes, and flowering cherries and plums. If you have lots of room and more time to wait, they love pigeonwood, matai and miro. Kereru are quite commonly seen in the Paparoa forest areas at any time of the year.