Tomtit | Petroica macrocephala

Voice

The male sings all year except while moulting: a thin, high, fast swee-swee-swee-swee of two to three seconds that cuts through the forest understorey. He also gives a run of chuck notes that speeds up and then slows away again, often in answer to a neighbour. Both sexes keep contact year-round with short sharp peeps, and those are usually heard well before the bird itself is seen.

Identification

A rounded bird of thirteen centimetres with a big round head, a small bill and a short black tail. The North Island male is black on head, back and wing, with a white wingbar and clean white underparts; on the South Island, the Chathams and the Aucklands he carries a yellow to orange breast band between the black and the white. Both sexes show a white spot at the base of the bill, the quickest mark in dark forest. In the female all the black is replaced by brown. The Snares form is wholly black and, at twenty grams, nearly twice as heavy.

Confusion species

The larger Petroica relatives of the main islands — P. longipes on the North Island and P. australis on the South — are longer-legged and greyer, lack the white wingbar and hop about on the forest floor rather than watching from a perch. Grey Warbler (Gerygone igata) is smaller, plain grey-green and never still. A female against the light can suggest a white-eye, but it lacks the white eyering of the Silvereye.

Habitat

Almost any closed forest: podocarp-broadleaf on the North Island, southern beech in the mountains of the South Island, kauri forest in Northland. It also uses planted Pinus radiata, manuka and kanuka scrub, and well-treed farm shelterbelts. From sea level to the treeline; in June and July mountain birds drop a few hundred metres down the slope.

Range and movements

Both main islands and Stewart Island, plus a string of offshore islands each with its own subspecies: Little Barrier, Kapiti, the Chathams, the Snares and the Aucklands. It has not been lost from any forest district and, unlike many other native songbirds, has held on well away from predator-free islands. It does not migrate and generally spends its life in one block of forest.

• Resident
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Stand still on a forest track and wait: the Tomtit comes to look at you, often to within two or three metres. A soft pssht or a tap on a trunk brings it in within seconds. Check the white spot above the bill on every bird; it stays visible in the darkest understorey and saves you the question of female or juvenile.

Conservation

Least Concern (LC), and 'Not Threatened' on the New Zealand list. It is one of the few native songbirds doing well away from predator-free islands: it nests high and hidden enough to keep part of its nests out of reach of rats and stoats, and it accepts planted forest. The Chatham Island subspecies is another matter — Nationally Endangered, and confined to a handful of small islands.

Scientific name

Petroica macrocephala | (Gmelin, 1789)

Gmelin described the bird in 1789 as Parus macrocephalus, among the tits; because it was later moved to another genus, author and year stand in parentheses. The genus Petroica was introduced by Swainson in 1830, from Greek petros, 'rock', and oikos, 'home'. macrocephala is Greek for 'great-headed', from makros, 'large', and kephale, 'head'. The type came from Queen Charlotte Sound in the South Island; the Maori name is miromiro.