Mission to bring tūī back to Christchurch - the only city without the native

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

The Tūī Corridor – a joint initiative by the Christchurch Foundation and Meridian Energy – aims to to plant 11,000 tūī-friendly plants between Banks Peninsula and the CBD.

Christchurch is the only city withut tūī but a plan is under way to lure the native bird back by planting hundreds of new “tūī kai” in central Christchurch.

The Tūī Corridor – a joint initiative by the Christchurch Foundation and Meridian Energy – aims to plant 11,000 tūī-friendly plants between Banks Peninsula and the CBD.

The plan is to create enough food and habitat to encourage the birds to flock back into Christchurch, after the region’s tūī population died out in the 1970s.

The project launched last September, when hundreds of volunteers planted 3000 native plants in the Christchurch Adventure Park in the Port Hills.

* Which flaxes will bring birds to your garden?

Canterbury is only region in New Zealand where there isn’t a common population of tūī.

* Wild goats on Canterbury's Banks Peninsula in the crosshairs

Ken Jackson shows Hannah Duder from the Christchurch Foundation the basics of tree planting at Ara.

Its second event took place on Tuesday, with a mini forest of 300 native plants established at the Ara Institute of Canterbury’s central city campus.

Christchurch Foundation chief executive Amy Carter said Christchurch was the only city in New Zealand that did not have tūī.

Christchurch Foundation chief executive Amy Carter at Ara Institute of Canterbury, where Tūī Corridor planting was taking place as part of Meridian Energy’s Forever Forests programme.

“We don’t know why tūī died out in Canterbury … it’s the only region in New Zealand where there isn’t a really common population.

“Some breeding pairs were reintroduced to [Banks] Peninsula a number of years ago by the Department of Conservation and the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, and they’re starting to spread. But what we need is to have more food that they like to eat on this side of the hill, to bring them over from the peninsula.”

Tony Gray, chief executive Ara Institute of Canterbury, says this is just one of many sustainability projects at their Christchurch campus, which include beehives and onsite composting.

Carter said the 300 plants at Ara would help create a “mini forest” bellbirds and tūī could come to in a few years time, once they had grown up a bit.

But she said that was just the beginning.

Next month around 5000 will be planted on four hectares at Banks Peninsula’s Living Springs, near Allandale.

Another 5000 will be planted in September, at a site yet to be confirmed, and Meridian plans to more than double the original project by planting another 11,000 next year.

Carter said Cantabrians keen to help out could plant natives like kōwhai or harakeke – New Zealand flax – in their own backyards.

“Others that you might want to put in your veggie garden, [they are] not natives, but they really like feijoa.

“Things that have a flower they can feed on … anything that you see other birds drinking from. Flax in particular seems really popular.”

In 2009 and 2010, 72 tūī were released at Hinewai Reserve near Akaroa. The population has established and there are now regular sightings in Akaroa and Little River.

They have occasionally been spotted in Christchurch too. One seen in Mt Pleasant last April, was described as “better than TV” by residents lucky enough to see it.