Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

A sparrow and a greenfinch very tentatively sharing the bird feeder that I have in the garden. It looks rather tense – as if a fight could break out at any moment! They really went to great lengths to keep their distance from each other. Now that I have enticed the birds to the feeder and the tree behind it, I am finding them endlessly entertaining with their hilarious antics and their social behaviour is fascinating.

From what little I have observed, it appears that our little New Zealand Wax-eyes are given quite a lot of respect by the other birds that come into the garden. The sparrows will sit and wait quite patiently until a wax-eye has had a feed and flitted off – before fluttering in for a feed of apple or fat. Beside the bird feeder I have some lard hanging in a basket that I got from the ‘Mad Butcher’ – all of the birds love it and take turns to peck at it. The bird feeder is full of wild bird seed, which is nice and tasty for the finches and sparrows, but does not appeal to the wax-eyes who are nectar feeders. I’ve also put out fresh water and this is proving very popular with all of the birds.