The Face of a Full Tummy - Raising Tui Nestlings at Flock

First Day at Flock 🥚💕

These are the faces that keep us going at 2am. Tiny, pink, and completely helpless on arrival — these tūī nestlings came to us in the first days of their lives, most of them after cat attacks or nest falls. On day one, it's all about warmth, hydration, and getting those first feeds in.

Day Two: Putting on Weight 🙌

By day two, we're already weighing them at every feed and watching for those tiny weight gains. Even a gram or two means the world at this stage. The face of a full tummy is genuinely one of the best sights in this job — that satisfied little settled-in look after a good feed.

Growing Up Fast

Tūī nestlings grow incredibly quickly. Within days they go from naked little things to having pin feathers, and before long they're starting to explore food on their own — getting gloriously messy in the process. We need a bath because we love getting sticky is basically a daily caption around here.

What They Eat

Tūī are nectarivores and insectivores, so their diet at this stage includes a carefully balanced mix of insectivore formula, native nectar sources, and live insects as they get older. Getting this right is crucial — the wrong diet at the nestling stage can cause developmental problems that are hard to correct later. Every meal matters. 🌿

See how these nestlings' story ends in the day we released five tūī, or test yourself on telling baby tūī and starlings apart.

Related reading: how to tell a baby tūī from a baby starling and the day we released five tūī.