JWM Study: Following New Zealand’s rare forest bird

[Cara J]

At night, in the dark forest of New Zealand’s mainland Bushy Park reserve, you might look up and see a splash of bright yellow in the trees. Pay close attention and you might even hear a “stitch, stitch, stitch.” That is the call of the female hihi bird (Notiomystis cincta) — pronounced “heehee” — and, until recently, these sounds and sightings in Bushy Park would have been unlikely. In fact, 30 years ago, the rare hihi — also known as the stitchbird — was only found on Little Barrier Island — an over 10 square mile island in New Zealand’s North Island. Disease, habitat destruction and introduced predators such as rats had wiped out the birds from other areas of the country. The current distribution of hihi birds on the North Island of New Zealand. ©Julia Panfylova There have been several attempts since the 1980s to restore populations from Little Barrier Island to Hen Island, Kapiti Island and other areas of the country. However, issues such as the presence of predators have caused these efforts to fail. Today, the birds can be found in the Bushy Park reserve where there was a recent reintroduction as well as other areas such [...]

 

Read more: http://wildlife.org/jwm-study-following-new-zealands-rare-forest-bird/