Tieke back in Bay

Mayron Wihongi and her children Ammon, Faith and Kayah release some of the tieke (saddlebacks), so eager to leave their crates they are visible as little more than black and orange streaks.Photo / Dean Wright

An ambitious plan to restore native wildlife in the Bay of Islands has taken another leap forward with the reintroduction of the tieke (North Island saddleback), a striking black-and-orange bird not seen in the Bay for more than a century.

Forty of the birds were captured on Mauimua (Lady Alice Island) in the Hen and Chickens off Bream Bay, then taken by helicopter to the Bay of Islands on March 29.

Twenty were released on Urupukapuka, the largest island in the Bay of Islands, and the other 20 on Moturua Island.

The birds' return is part of Project Island Song, a community effort to restore the original flora and fauna of the Ipipiri islands between Russell and Cape Brett.

Project coordinator Richard Robbins said he was "hugely relieved" to see the first lot of birds land safely and fly out of their boxes on their new island home.

Translocation expert Kevin Parker led the catching, caring, banding and release of the tieke; Rana and Alvin Rewha from Te Rawhiti, and Richard Penney from Ngatiwai, were part of the catching team on Mauimua and accompanied the birds to Ipipiri. About 90 people took part in the release, which included a powhiri on each island.

Mr Robbins said another 40 tieke would be released in May, this time from Tiritiri Matangi north of Auckland. Catching the birds at two locations would ensure genetic diversity, he said.

Tieke are still found on a few of Northland's offshore islands but vanished from the mainland around 1890, when European settlement accelerated and ship's and Norway rats became established.

The tieke is the third species to be returned as part of Project Island Song. The first was the pateke (brown teal) and the second, in June last year, was the toutouwai (North Island robin).

The next species in line are the popokotea (whitehead), a vocal forest bird also called the bush canary, and kowhai ngutukaka (kaka beak), a plant with striking red flowers resembling a bird's beak.

The volunteers plan to release 20 species of native birds, insects and plants over the next 15-20 years. They include the kokako, rifleman, red-crowned parakeet, tuatara, flax snail, brown kiwi, tusked weta and Cook's scurvy grass.

Project Island Song got underway in 2009 with a major trapping and poisoning exercise to wipe out introduced pests on 90 islands and rock stacks.

While possums had never reached the islands they were over-run with rats, which would have made any re-introductions futile.

Trapping for rats, stoats and other predators is ongoing. Boats can carry pests to the islands and some are within swimming distance of the mainland.