Clare St Pierre (centre) with Craig Montgomerie and Dr Janelle Ward releasing titipounamu at Maungatautari. Photo / Tom Davies
Clare St Pierre (centre) with Craig Montgomerie and Dr Janelle Ward releasing titipounamu at Maungatautari. Photo / Tom Davies
Titipounamu might be New Zealand's tiniest native bird, but they were a big hit at the annual general meeting of the Pirongia Te Aroaro o Kahu Restoration Society last month.
Ecologists Dave Bryden and Amanda Rogers led a translocation of titipounamu (rifleman) from Pirongia and Pureora to Maungatautari in May, and their presentation dug deeper into this little-known bird.
Titipounamu is one of the smallest passerines, or perching bird, in the world and is a member of a very ancient wren family.
There are only two types of New Zealand wrens left, the rock wren and the titipounamu, with three other species now extinct - bush wren, long-billed wren and Lyall's wren.
Craig Montgomerie on Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari releasing a Pirongia titipounamu during the May translocation. Photo / Tom Davies
Male and female have different colours, and during the translocation, it was noted that Pirongia titipounamu are a duller green than their Pureora counterparts.
The species is classified as at risk and declining, so still having them on Pirongia maunga is very special.
They nest in cavities and both parents take turns incubating and raising the chicks. After fledging, the chicks stay around to help raise the next brood.
The birds are poor flyers and can only cross about a 20m gap, but they generally stick close to the branches and trunks of trees as they feed on insects living in the cracks and crevices there.
Translocations of the birds are undertaken as insurance against extinction, to mitigate climate change risks and so that isolated populations aren't so vulnerable to new pathogens.
Dr Bruce Clarkson, the society's patron, picked up the theme of rare species still on Pirongia maunga to focus on the plant kingdom.
Pittosporum kirkii. Photo / Leigh Roderick
Many of these plants have been unable to have their seeds successfully grow into mature specimens because of the prevalence of possums or goats, but their populations have been substantially reduced now and conditions should allow for the survival of seedlings.
He encouraged those regularly visiting the maunga, to help these rare species to increase by spreading their seeds. He highlighted Pittosporum kirkii (Kirk's kōhūhū) as an example. Anyone wishing to help with this can contact the society via their website: www.mtpirongia.org.nz or phone 027 324 8195.
The chair of the society, Clare St Pierre, highlighted the year for the group in her annual report. The key points were:
The successful breeding of the second generation of kōkako on Pirongia maunga thanks to the entire pest control work undertaken by volunteers. In all, nine breeding pairs were monitored and at least 23 chicks were fledged.
Okahukura kokako. Photo / Amanda Rogers
The Okahukura kōkako protection project at Northern Pureora Forest covering 1000ha is powering ahead with record volunteer numbers. A census of kōkako there in May showed there are now 92 pairs compared to 45 in 2016.
More is being done in the educational space with online resources being developed in collaboration with Ngati Apakura and Nimbus Media. This will allow the stories of local iwi relating to the maunga and awa to be shared.
Their enviro centre's roof at Pirongia Village was painted thanks to Frontier Scaffolding.
The group's collaboration with Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust continued with further progress made on an ecological corridor to link the two maunga.
Volunteer numbers now stand at 393. Volunteer hours came to 10,639 this year involving 219 people which was a 14 per cent increase on last year.
For the full report, see https://www.mtpirongia.org.nz/reporting.
