Russell School 12-year-olds Sivan Howe (front) and KJ Surowiez give five more birds their freedom.
Russell School 12-year-olds Sivan Howe (front) and KJ Surowiez give five more birds their freedom.
A chirpy, gregarious little bird has returned to Northland after an absence of more than a century.
On Saturday 40 popokotea, or whiteheads, were released on Motuarohia Island in the Bay of Islands following a massive logistical exercise and years of groundwork eliminating pests and restoring habitats.
The birds were caught on Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf and transported by helicopter to Motuarohia in purpose-built boxes.
Image 1 of 20: Sisters Marino, 8, and Jovan Haunui-Tawhiao, 10, are piggy-backed to a Fullers boat at Rawhiti.
Volunteers carried the birds to a clearing, where they were welcomed and blessed by Rawhiti hapu, then set free.
The translocation was part of Project Island Song, a plan to restore the original flora and fauna of the eastern Bay of Islands.
The project, which started in 2003, is driven by community group Guardians of the Bay of Islands in conjunction with hapu and the Department of Conservation. It is also supported by island landowners.
Forty tieke (saddlebacks), a distinctive orange-and-black bird, were released at the same time, 20 on Moturua Island and 20 on Urupukapuka. They followed an earlier relocation of tieke in April.
The logistically complicated triple release went without a hitch, though it was still in doubt until 9am that morning when the final test results came through showing the tieke were disease-free.
Project Island Song coordinator Richard Robbins said the popokotea was a "gregarious little bird" that travelled through the tree tops in loudly chirping flocks.
"They're a great little bird. They've been missing from the eastern Bay of Islands for more than 100 years. Hopefully they'll establish themselves and we'll see huge flocks of them flying around the island."
A popokotea makes a break for freedom.
If the birds do breed successfully in their new home, another vanished bird is likely to return. The popokotea is the only North Island host of the long-tailed cuckoo.
The cuckoo spends winter in the tropical Pacific, then returns to New Zealand to lay its eggs in whitehead nests.
The significance of Saturday's release was underlined by the guest list. Project volunteers, DoC staff, hapu members and schoolchildren were joined by three Members of Parliament - Northland MP Winston Peters and Labour MPs Peeni Henare and Stuart Nash, all guests of a landowner - as well as "Bugman" Ruud Kleinpaste.
Mr Peters used his brief speech to lament ongoing Government cuts to DoC's budget. The cuts were shotsighted because ecotourism would be an important part of New Zealand's economic recovery, he said.
