Our petrels are making news

New Zealand is the seabird capital of the world. However, until recently, seabirds were pretty low on the species priority list for local councils and your average “kiwi”. But this is changing - as word is hitting the streets - and we’re seeing a tide of change - seabirds are making a comeback!

A third of the world’s seabird species breed in Aotearoa! Seabirds are an integral part of our biodiversity, bringing back vital marine nutrients to coastal forests and ecosystems on the mainland. Seabirds also link New Zealand to the rest of the world. Their flight paths cross the globe and these birds become an indicator of the health of our oceans, fish stocks and climate … by learning more about seabirds we can learn and understand so much more about the state of our environment. 

Until recently, most seabirds were relegated to offshore islands. But seabirds, especially ōi / grey-faced petrel, are rebounding on the mainland, and into the consciousness of Kiwis.

Petrels made the news twice recently. Two critically endangered tāiko / black petrels crash-landed far from the coast in Otorohanga and were released in Raglan in an operation organised by Otorohanga Kiwi House, DOC and the Karioi Project. While once they would have bred all over the North Island, tāiko now breed only on Aotea / Great Barrier and Te Hauturu-oToi / Little Barrier island. We were privileged to meet these beautiful birds. Read the full article on RNZ. 

Following the tāiko release, RNZ also celebrated the return of ōi to the mainland. Read the full article. “Historically the species had been found throughout the upper half of the North Island but the birds were relegated to offshore islands due to harvesting and the introduction of predatory mammals. Predator Free NZ has really motivated community groups to get into backyard trapping, and as a side effect of that we suddenly realised these grey-faced petrels were coming back to the coastlands…”