The sighting of a rare white heron (kōtuku) in Pāpāmoa is being seen as a sign of a healthy bird population.
Envirohub Bay of Plenty’s community co-ordinator Cathy Donnelly says several social media followers have told the organisation about sightings of the rare bird.
“We know a lot about endangered native birds in the bush, but we don’t always know what’s happening in the populations of all the birds around us, particularly in urban and garden environments,” she says.
Envirohub runs a Predator Free programme providing free rat traps to households in the Western Bay of Plenty.
It is estimated that one rat will kill 50 birds in its lifetime.