Fantail

Maori Name: Piwakawaka

Rhipidura rhipidura

Fantail

Maori Name: Piwakawaka
Rhipidura rhipidura
Maori name Piwakawaka                                            

The fantail is a common native bird which is widespread right through New Zealand and most of the outlying islands. There are 10 sub species of fantail; 3 of which are native to New Zealand – the North Island fantail (placabilis) the South Island fantail (fulginosa) and the Chatham Islands fantail (penitus). The other 7 species of fantail are distributed widely throughout the South Pacific and Australia.

The South Island species has two colour forms, the pied and the black, the latter making up to about 25% of numbers and living mostly in native forest and at high altitudes. 

The 2 distinct South island sub-species will readily breed together to give both pied and black offspring, and even black ones are reported to mate together and produce the pied version. 

Originally a bird of open native forests and scrub, it is now also found in exotic plantation forests, in orchards and in gardens. It is one of the few native birds that has had benefit from human population, and has readily adapted to the clearance of native forest. The fantail has a range that extends from sea level to snow line. 

Fantail populations fluctuate greatly from year to year, and many die especially when winters are prolonged or severe storms hit in spring, but as they are prolific breeders they can boost numbers in one season by laying as many as 5 broods of chicks.

In New Zealand, fantails have a relatively short life compared to those living in warmer countries. They will live about 3 years, as opposed to varieties in Australia which have been known to live as long as 10 years.

The mating pair will stay together all year, but because of their high mortality rate, they often don’t remain together in successive seasons. They will be extremely territorial in the breeding season, defending their patch while building their nest. The neat cup nest will be built using dried grass, bark, moss and cobwebs and lined with hair, fine fern fronds and feathers. It usually has a tail of nest material hanging down from it and rests in an under story shrub at the fork in a branch. 

About 2-5 eggs will be laid from late August to February in successive batches from about 2-5 broods. The eggs are white speckled with light brown spots. Those fantails in island populations have a considerably shorted breeding season and might raise up to 2 broods.

Both birds will incubate the eggs for 13 to 16 days, and will then brood and feed the chicks for up to 16 days. When the chicks fledge, they stay close by the nest and still need to be fed. However when the female begins the next nest, the male takes over the duty of feeding. 

There are 3 ways a fantail feeds; by hawking for flying invertebrates in the open spaces, by flushing out the insects in the under story or by following the path of a big animal or human to prey on the insects they have disturbed. They seldom feed on the ground and use their wide fan tail to manoeuvre themselves artfully in the air.