An influx of starving native pigeons at a Northland bird hospital is likely due to the combined effects of a bad year for a particular species of tree and a rat plague chomping through the birds' usual food, an expert says.
Robert Webb, of Whangārei's Bird Recovery Centre, said most years he treated about 80 kūkupa, also called kererū or wood pigeons, for a variety of ailments but this year had been particularly bad.
Last month more than 25 kūkupa had been delivered to the Whangārei centre while another 10 had been found ailing in Kerikeri. Some of the birds were literally starving, Webb said.
Forest and Bird's Northland advocate, Dean Baigent-Mercer, believed the high number of hungry kūkupa this year was due to a disruption in the birds' seasonal food calendar this winter because taraire trees hadn't fruited much during winter.