'Yeah boy': Meet Pleakley, Ōtorohanga Kiwi House's talking tūī

A cheeky tūī named after the Lilo and Stitch character Pleakley is literally turning heads at the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House.

If you wander past his innocuous-looking enclosure on your way to the exit, he's likely to call out "hey buddy" or perhaps just guffaw at you.

While it is not unheard of for tūī to mimic car alarms and the like, birds that talk are relatively rare.

Ōtorohanga Wildlife manager Matt Ronaldson explained how Pleakley came to be at the sanctuary.

"He came to us as a very young bird. He was rescued in Hamilton with a sibling and the rescuer had him and they brought him to us hoping that he could potentially go back to the wild.

"After a little bit of assessing it worked out that, no, it wasn't suitable to go back to the wild due to the fact he climbed inside my jersey and he made kissing noises when he came and landed on your shoulder."

Pleakley's gift of the gab was discovered by accident.

"We would hear him now and again when he was in the holding aviary up the back. He would bark - sorry - he would tell the dogs to shut up and then he would bark.

"And we started hearing this random voice coming from the holding aviaries and worked out it was Pleakley and he was starting to mimic some of the staff around - me in particular."

The tūī now had about 15 phrases down-pat.

"With a bit of training and work with him he learnt 'good boy' on a regular basis and he used to land on staff members' shoulders and lean into their ear and actually say 'good boy' in my voice which was a little bit disturbing for some of the staff.

"And since then he's actually learnt quite a few ... other words. He's got 'yeah boy' and we had a visitor from Australia and she held up her engagement ring to him and he said 'oh beautiful'."

Associate Professor of Ecology and Zoology at Massey University Isabel Castro said tūī were great mimics.

"So they wouldn't imitate people in the wild, they would imitate other birds or the sound of the wind through the leaves, all the natural sounds, and they use them as part of their communication style."

Tūī have two voice boxes and could make a huge range of sounds - some of which were beyond the range of human ears.

It seems Pleakley might have an ulterior motive for his calls.

"The sounds that birds produce can be used as a sign of the sexual quality of the animal, for example, how good they would be as mates.

"And in the case of tūī and other small birds that do those imitations that allows the birds to produce sounds that are sexier to members of the other sex."

Regardless, visitors to the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House were loving his flirtatious nature.

Jeneni was visiting with a family group from Malaysia.

"It was laughing at us. There he is again."

Not that she held it against Pleakely.

"It's not too bad, it's okay."

Australian visitor Carol was intrigued.

"It said 'hey buddy' and it was making a clicking sound with its tongue."

Juliet was visiting from France.

"He did sort of talk though I can't remember what he said exactly. I was surprised because it was kind of gutteral sounds and I'm more used to the singing phrase they do."

New Zealander Britney knew tūī could mimic speak but had not expected to be laughed at.

"He was laughing, like, at us laughing at him, and him responding with it. Same with the 'hey buddy'."

Waikato local Laura had a large family group in tow.

"We knew he sat there and sometimes made sounds like the phone, but we had no idea that he could talk."

Laura's daughter Michelle loved it.

"He said 'hey buddy'. I though it was cool."

The Ōtorohanga Kiwi House is open everyday from 9am until 5pm, except on Christmas Day - when Pleakley and the crew took a well earned rest.

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