The Return of the Pīpīwharauroa — A Sign of Spring

Have you heard the distinctive call of the pīpīwharauroa (shining cuckoo)? Right around now, these small migratory birds are arriving back in Aotearoa for another summer. After spending winter in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, they make the long journey south, arriving here around September.

For Māori, the return of the pīpīwharauroa is an important tohu (sign) of the changing season. Its arrival signals that Kōanga (Spring) has begun and was traditionally associated with the spring planting season.

There is a beautiful whakataukī associated with the bird:

“Ka tangi te wharauroa, ko ngā karere a Mahuru.”  

“If the shining cuckoo cries, it is the messenger of spring.”

The pīpīwharauroa has an interesting relationship with one of our much smaller native birds, the riroriro (grey warbler). The shining cuckoo doesn't build its own nest or raise its own chicks. Instead, it has a brood-parasitic relationship with the grey warbler.

The female cuckoo lays a single egg in a grey warbler's nest (or on the ground below the nest and then places it in the nest). When the cuckoo chick hatches, it instinctively pushes the riroriro's eggs or chicks out of the nest, leaving the unsuspecting riroriro parents to raise the young pīpīwharauroa. The small riroriro adoptive parents work very hard feeding the much larger pīpīwharauroa. 

So, as Kōanga gets underway, keep an ear out for that unmistakable call of the pīpīwharauroa, one of our fascinating native birds.