Garden Locals: A curious female tūī at the feeder

Meet Today’s Local

In this Garden Locals post, I’m introducing one of the regular visitors to my garden. These are the moments that happen close to home, where patience and familiarity make all the difference.

Today’s local is a female tūī captured during a quiet moment in the garden.

The Moment

The image featured here is a close-up portrait of a female tūī, photographed while she was calmly sitting on the feeder. Most of the time, when I photograph tūī in the garden, I’m positioned at my dining room table, shooting through the bay window. It’s a comfortable setup and usually works well.

We’ve had a lot of rain recently and on this particular day, the window was far from clean. Smears and water marks weren’t going to do the image any favours. When I spotted the tūī at the feeder, I decided to take a chance, quietly sneaking out the door to see if I could capture a closer, cleaner image before she flew off.

Female tūī showing off her stunning feather colours and details up close

Behaviour & Observations

To my surprise, the tūī wasn’t bothered by my presence at all. Instead of flying away, she seemed curious, almost intrigued to see me somewhere other than behind the glass. She carried on drinking from the feeder as if nothing had changed, giving me plenty of time to click away and capture the moment.

It’s encounters like this that make garden bird photography so rewarding, when patience is rewarded with trust, even if only briefly.

Camera Gear & Settings Used

For this image, I was shooting with my Lumix G9II paired with the Panasonic Leica 100–400mm lens. I shoot in Aperture Priority almost exclusively, as it allows me to control depth of field while letting the camera handle changing light conditions.

Camera Settings

Camera: Lumix G9II
Lens: Panasonic Leica 100-400
Focal length: 400mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter speed: 1/2000 sec
ISO: 5000
Mode: Aperture priority

The fast shutter speed helped freeze any sudden movement, while f/8 ensured enough depth of field to keep the tūī sharp. The higher ISO was a necessary trade-off to maintain those settings in the available light and to compensate for my shaky hands.

Final Thoughts

Photographing tūī in the garden is always unpredictable, and sometimes the best images come from adapting to the moment. Stepping outside instead of shooting through the window made all the difference here, turning a simple feeder visit into a memorable portrait.

This is the first in a series of meeting the locals in my garden. I will be drawing from both new and older images to complete this series. I hope you enjoy this post and keep a watch out for more of the same.

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