Wood pigeons doing the spring fling

New Zealand native wood pigeon.

I have been enjoying the antics of the wood pigeons over the last few weeks.  They move into the orchard and surrounding trees over late winter and through spring to early summer.  At this time of year they are eating the leaf and flower buds and blossom on the trees.  Luckily I have enough trees that they don't destroy my fruit prospects for summer!  The males are doing great acrobatic aerial displays, trying to impress their chosen lady, who sometimes joins in.

 The wood pigeon, or Kereru as it is know here, is a very large bird, approx 51cm from beak to tail.  They can weigh 650g and are very noisy flyer's.  I think it takes quite a bit of wing power to get that body airborne.  They often fly quite low, just getting over the roof of the house or top of the trees.

They are very important to our native bush as they are the only bird capable of eating the large fruit of some of our native trees.  Without them distributing the seeds around, the bush would not be able to regenerate naturally.

I think they are awesome birds to have around and welcome their presence when they arrive each year.