Wednesday, 21 July 2010
When a beakless tui sporting a deformed tongue turned up in David Green's Pukerua Bay garden in January, he feared for its chances of survival.
However, after months of being lured back to Mr Green's garden by a tub of sugary water, the bird – which struggles to eat and drink – is now healthy.
Mr Green first noticed there was something different about the tui when he looked out of his window and thought it had fishing line caught in its mouth.
"I just thought this poor pathetic thing, where has his beak gone?" 
Compared to the other tui, the young bird did not look well, and Mr Green doubted he would see it again.
Forest & Bird Lower North Island field officer Aalbert Rebergen said the bird, which was probably a female, would have been only a few months old at that point.
Mr Green showed him pictures of the tui but, without a beak and functioning tongue, Mr Rebergen did not think it would survive.
"A bird without a beak is hardly a bird at all. I've seen a bird with a broken beak but never a bird without a beak."
Tui had "quite forceful" beaks, and Mr Rebergen said it was a mystery whether the tui in Mr Green's garden had been born without it or had lost it somehow.
What Mr Green had thought was fishing line was the tui's tongue, although it seemed to have no control over it, he said.
It would be "extremely difficult" for the tui to feed naturally, and Mr Rebergen said it must be surviving only because of Mr Green and other people who put sugar water in their gardens.
"It's quite mysterious. It's very likely it completely sustains itself on food from locals. It's a very lucky bird."
Mr Green said the tui seemed to dip its head far deeper into the food tub than other birds, perhaps because that was the only way it could eat.
He and his wife, Susan, were pleased to see it had become a regular visitor in their garden and that it had been accepted by the other tui. "It was a sad, pathetic little bird really, but now it's marvellous. It's strong and flying around, and mixing with the other birds."
Source: The Dominion Post