White ceramic coffee mug with Kereru print.

Kereru is New Zealand’s native pigeon, they are large birds and can measure up to 51 cm from tail to beak, and weigh about 650g. Kereru are seed dispersers, regenerating native forests. They can swallow large fruit, they also eat leaves, buds and flowers. They nest mainly in spring to early summer producing only one egg per nest, mum and dad take turns to look after the egg during the 28-day incubation period. The chick grows rapidly, leaving the nest when about 40 days old. It is fed “pigeon milk”, a protein-rich milky secretion from the walls of the parents’ muscular pouch near the gullet or throat, which is mixed with fruit pulp.