Kiwis can do their bit for the birds by taking part in the annual New Zealand Garden Bird Survey until 4 July.
Tui numbers have been on the rise in Canterbury. Photo: Aneta Foubikova/ Unsplash
The citizen science project asks people to take note of which birds visit their gardens and report their findings to Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research.
The organisation uses the data to assess bird population across the country and to monitor individual species.
Manaaki Whenua ecologist and modeller Angela Brandt said the bird count included the 14 species most commonly found in people's gardens.
"We would love everyone to get out into their gardens and spend an hour recording every bird that they see or hear and then reporting the maximum number of each species that they see or hear during that hour in an online form we provide," Brandt said.
"That's really great data that we can use to understand how bird populations are changing across New Zealand."
Counts over the past 10 years had seen silvereye numbers dropping, but numbers started to pick up again in the past five years, she said.
"We're seeing large increases in kererū.
"We actually see quite strong increases over the last few years in tui in Canterbury. Part of that might be because there really were so few," Brandt said.
