Fantails, or piwakawaka in Maori, are amazing. They are beautiful, acrobatic birds that come close as you walk past. Sitting on a branch nearby you, flapping its wings, swishing its tail and darting across behind you. Like a rhythmic gymnast standing in the corner of their mat preparing mentally before running as fast as they can into a leap, flip, jump, back and forth, up and down. Then landing back in another corner readying themselves to do the whole thing all over again. So why is it that fantails follow you around? To answer this question we need to first learn more about the fantail’s normal behaviours.
Fantails are insect eaters – they mostly eat flies, beetles moths and wasps. Although many birds are insect eaters, none of them is quite like the fantail. It will hop around on branches and in dense foliage, looking under leaves and behind bark like other insect eaters. It will also sit impatiently and watch for a swarm of insects or a single insect passing by before darting out and grabbing it. While it is doing this it is always looking side to side, jumping to change direction and barely sitting still. Like an excited dog wagging its tail as fast as it can and bouncing around waiting for its ball to be thrown so it can chase after it. This behaviour of waiting and darting out is called hawking.
Their third method of hunting insects is what makes fantails special and is called flushing. Fantails use their athletic, agile, acrobatics to waft nearby grass and undergrowth. This rush of wind disturbs the insects causing them to fly up to find a better position out of the breeze. It is then that the fantail strikes. Taking the insects out of the air as they leap from their hiding place.
Now we can go back to our original question – why is it that fantails follow you around? Just like the fantail swishing its tail, when you walk through the undergrowth you disturb the insects living in it. The is perfect for a fantail, it can swoop around in the trail collecting up the easy pickings without having to flush out its prey itself. Often a fantail will sit on one side of the path watching for you to disturb something and dart in and collect it. Other times when the insects are abundant it will swoop around behind you continuously picking them off. This behaviour is not limited to humans. Fantails will also follow around cattle or even other birds such as whiteheads, silvereyes, and parakeets.
Last time I was on Tiritiri Matangi I walked out to the most Northerly point by Papakura Pa. As I started to walk back a fantail joined my tail, then a second, and a third. Fantails are very territorial and three is indisputably a crowd. There must have been a mating pair and a third wheel because two of the fantails kept cheeping loudly and flying straight at the third one. However, that didn’t stop it swooping down and snapping up the insects I’d disturbed before being threatened again. I must have walked about 500m before the last of the fantails disappeared back to their respective areas.
Next time you are out and a fantail catches your tail make sure to kick up a fuss and try and disturb some insects for it. It might even thank you with a display of its amazing aerial acrobatics.
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