Whāingaroa’s 50th ōi chick fledges!

This great milestone was celebrated in the Waikato Times on 21 December 2023. See the full article/footage here.

Whāingaroa has something extra special to celebrate this Christmas with the fledging of this season’s ōi chicks, who have now stretched their wings. 

The ōi, a rarely-sighted native seabird also known as the grey-faced petrel, nest along our coastline annually and, thanks to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers, have been making a comeback in recent years. 

Karioi Project manager Kristel Van Houte says this year is particularly exciting because it has seen an important milestone reached, as the 50th chick in six years leaves the burrow. 

“Before 2017, our team would check ōi burrows only to find abandoned eggs and dead chicks – it wasn’t looking good for the local ōi population,” Kristel says. “Thanks to the dedication of local volunteers spending hundreds of hours trapping predators – like stoats, possums and rats – and checking burrows, we’ve just witnessed our 50th chick successfully fledge – it’s pretty incredible,” she says. 

The ōi season runs from May to December; eggs are laid in burrows dug out by adult ōi and, once the chicks hatch around September, they spend three months underground waiting to get big enough to come out and greet the world. Karioi Project seabird ranger Georgia Cummings says the last few months of the year are critical to the nestlings’ survival. “It’s during this time we need to be extra careful to stop predators like feral cats, stoats and ferrets from getting them.”

When they eventually come out and dust off their feathers, they fly far away to feed at sea, barely touching land for four or five years until it’s time to come home and start a family. “Once you’ve got a fledged chick, it will nearly always come back to its natal area to breed, and so the more chicks that fledge from our shores, the more the ōi colony in Whāingaroa will grow – and that’s just awesome,” says Georgia. 

Research shows seabirds breeding on the mainland is in decline - yet in areas where passionate communities come together to protect seabirds, their numbers are on the increase. “This is a testimony to a community that has come together and made a real difference to a vulnerable species that is an important part of the threatened coastal ecosystem,” says Georgia.

This little chick, still covered in fluffy down, isn’t quite ready to fly but it comes out of its burrow at night and practices, getting ready for the big inaugural flight!