A riroriro, or grey warbler
Photo: Bartek Wypych
It brings up not only its own young, but those of the Pīpīwharauroa – the Shining Cuckoo.
And your adult Riroriro (grey warbler) is one of the smallest birds you’re likely to find in the bush, or your garden.
Yet it has one of the strongest songs.
So – given they’re about to raise a bunch of cuckoos, we thought we’d honour them with this week’s “Sonic” Moment of Calm.
Bryan Crump recorded one plucky bird in the trees beside the Pukeahu War Memorial Park in Wellington.
The good news for Riroriro is they raise a brood of their own chicks in late winter before the Pīpīwharauroa return from their tropical island holiday,
Most of the second clutch the Riroriro lay will end up kicked out of the nest and replaced by cuckoo eggs once the Pīpīwharauroa arrive later this month and early October.
Bur thanks to those double Riroriro shifts, we get to enjoy the call of the first cuckoos of spring, and the call of the Riroriro all year around.
A Pīpīwharauroa doing what comes naturally – resting.
Photo: By Mcbeath k – Own work, CC BY-SA