Fantail

Fantails are a wonderful bird to be around. If you are in the bush and it comes up to you it means fantails think people are harmless characters. In fact that is a true fact about the bird it does actually think humans are a harmless character. Read more about fantails here. “Fantail” in Maori is Piwakawaka incase you see it in my story and wonder what it means.

A Fantail/Piwakawaka lives in multiple places, for an example in public gardens and native park reserves. The Piwakawaka lives in New Zealand and it is very common here in nz and also offshore islands. They are such a beautiful bird and it is known for its fan shaped tail that is how fantails got its name ”Fantail.”They are brown and have a black and white tail feathers that open like a fan when they fly. The reason why they have a fan shaped tail it is because it then allows them to do aerial acrobatics.

It uses it’s broad tail to change direction quickly while it hunts for food in the forest.

sometimes the fantail will hop under the leaf to get insects for its prey, it’s prey includes moths, flies, spiders, wasps and beetles also fruit maybe even more. They seldom feed off of the ground. (Seldom-Occasionally)

Both adult female and male fantails incubate their eggs for up to 14 days at the most and the chicks fledge at about 13 days. A female can lay 2-5 eggs per clutch and juvenile males can breed between 2-9 months old. Juvenile meaning like junior or young. And clutch is when baby fantails grow fast. Both female and male can feed the chicks the male could go out to find more food while the female feeds or maybe even  other way around.

The Piwakawaka lifespan is quite short in New Zealand the longest fantail ever lived in New Zealand was recorded for 3 years and in Australia it was about 10 years that is a really long time for a small bird like a fantail. The scientific name for a fantail is Rhipidura Fuliginosa. They stay in pairs for a while and then go off on their own for the rest of their life. Females can lay as many as 5 clutches per session, each clutch has 2-5 eggs per clutch.

Cats, Rats, Stoats, Mynas and more are the biggest threats to fantails Mynas are probably the biggest threats because they are one of the biggest enemies to a fantail.  Mynas are also a threat to any other small native birds. Rats can stretch to fantails nests to eat their eggs as rats can eat anything in the world even wood.

Conclusion so please go outside in the outdoors and admire the fantails and other native birds, but don’t do anything to harm them and also if you see any pests that hurt fantails then please give the council or the department of conservation a warning about it because some native birds like fantails are coming instinct soon.

By Imani.