Ethan Benney has been predator-proofing a section of native bush on his family farm in Glenbervie. Birdlife including three rarely seen Kakariki have made it home.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
Ethan Benney has been predator-proofing a section of native bush on his family farm in Glenbervie. Birdlife including three rarely seen Kakariki have made it home.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
Years of hard work predator-proofing an historic block of bush on his family’s stud farm has paid off for a Glenbervie man as three rare native parrots have returned.
Passionate about preserving it, he fenced it to keep the family’s livestock out and has been methodically trapping, shooting, and poisoning predators in it ever since with the aim of encouraging native bird life back.
Giant puriri trees on the block were about 500 years old and a favourite food source for all sorts of bird species, Benney said.
Kaka and bellbird returned some time ago but it wasn’t until last December, he heard the unmistakable, unique, call of New Zealand’s native red-crowned parakeet, known by its Māori name kakariki.
Not only had his years of hard work paid off, but it was an indication that he and other conservationists were “going in the right direction in Northland and just need to keep it up”, Benney said.
Bird lover Ethan Benney says the return of three kakariki to a block of native bush he has spent years predator-proofing on his family's farm, is "a really big deal". Photo / Michael Cunningham
While fortunate to be employed full time in his “dream job” contract trapping and shooting for Goodwood, Aotearoa, Benney said the safeguarding of his Glenbervie bush block was his “life’s work”.
His vision was to create “a little haven” for native species and the arrival of the kakariki was a testimony to how birds could learn where predator-free places were.
Anxious about looking after the first bird when it showed up, he phoned various different agencies for information about caring for kakariki.
Along with daily trap checks, he renewed rat bait weekly, and regularly shot larger predators such as possums, stoats, and wild cats, Benney said.
He knew culling cats was an emotive topic but it was an important one. A succession of wild cats that came out of the Glenbervie Forest, adjacent to his family’s land, seemed to be “never ending”.
He knew all his neighbours’ pet cats so was careful never to take aim at them.
And his neighbours were supportive of his pursuit too. They’d happily obliged with his request to put collars with bells on their cats, especially after he told them about the arrival of the kakariki.
“They really buy into it - it’s such a cool little community. It’s great to be met with such positivity,” Benney said.
Once he discovered kakariki were using this hole in a tree trunk as a nest, Ethan Benney stepped up his predator-proofing efforts. Photo / Michael Cunningham.
It was a relief when a second bird arrived as he didn’t need to worry as much about the first one. He didn’t know if they were a male and female as the only way to tell would be to catch and inspect them but he preferred to leave nature alone.
However, he had noticed them both regularly emerge out of the same hole in a tree trunk, where he suspected they were probably nesting.
The breeding season for kakariki was August to April so it was possible the pair might even be caring for a clutch of eggs, Benney said.
There was certainly a huge amount of food available throughout the bush at the moment to support them.
To monitor the birds, he set up a motion-activated trail camera directly facing the nest and was hoping he might even get a glimpse in the weeks ahead of some chicks.
Just this week a third bird arrived. Ethan thinks they might be from a flock of 40 that was relocated from Hauturu (Little Barrier Island) to the pest-free Moturua Island, near Russell, in 2017 as part of Project Island Song.
According to NZ birds online, there are three types of kakariki native to NZ and many of its off-shore islands.
All long-tailed parakeets - an orange-fronted variety has a frontal band of orange above its eyes and is often confused with a yellow-crowned variety. The species on Benney’s property is the red-crowned variety, also sometimes confused with the yellow-crowned one.
As their name suggests, all kakariki (meaning green in Māori) have mainly green plumage. The red-crowned variety has a crimson forehead, fore-crown and patches behind the eyes and on each flank at the base of the tail. The leading edge of the primary wing feathers are a rich cyan blue.
The website says: “Although they are widely distributed throughout the NZ region, and very common on some islands, they are almost entirely absent from the two main islands.
“One exception is Wellington city, where birds dispersing from Zealandia and Matiu/Somes Islands are occasionally seen in suburban gardens.”
Kakariki live on several islands off Northland, including the Hen and Chickens, Poor Knights, and Little Barrier islands.
