40 hihi released at Shakespear Regional Park, marking return to Auckland mainland

Friday, 3 July 2020

Native hihi birds released into Shakespear Regional Park

Forty rare hihi have been released at Shakespear Regional Park, north of Auckland, marking a successful return to the region’s mainland.

The birds flew into the trees of their new home in a blur, their high-pitched “zit tzit” whistle joining the calls of the fantails and tui nearby.

Twenty female and 20 male hihi were released by members of Auckland Council, Hihi Conservation Charitable Trust, Ngāti Manuhiri, the Navy and Shakespear Open Sanctuary Society Incorporated (SOSSI) onto Defence Force land within the park.

The hihi, or stitchbird, were moved from nearby Tiritiri Matangi Island and as they had had a “rough day” and “a lot of travelling”, were released before speeches marked the occasion.

The 40 hihi were released from their eight boxes in a blur.

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Rachel Kelleher, Auckland Council’s manager of regional parks, told those gathered it was fitting the hihi were released on a sunny winter’s day as its name in Māori means ray of sunshine.

The hihi are the only birds known to sometimes mate face to face (file photo).

She said it was hoped the effectively pest-free Shakespear Open Sanctuary will be a “safe place for the hihi to thrive”.

“We hope this population does really well.”

Ngāti Manuhiri spokesman Carmen Hetaraka said the hihi was a bird of prophecy for his ancestors.

The 40 male and female hihi were moved from nearby Tiritiri Matangi Island.

Stephen Lyttleton, SOSSI’s chairman, said it was looking forward to looking after the hihi in the years to come.

The 40 hihi are the fifth absent bird species to be reintroduced into the sanctuary since pest eradication began in 2011.

The hihi have joined little spotted kiwi and tiēke or saddleback.

Their reintroduction to the area was possible thanks to a SOSSI fundraiser hosted by the Gulf Harbour Country Club and a grant from Foundation North.

According to the Department of Conservation, the hihi is one of New Zealand’s rarest birds.

It naturally survives on Te Haururu o Toi/Little Barrier Island and was last seen on the mainland in the Tararua Ranges in 1883.

There are now small managed populations of hihi on Tiritiri Matangi and Kapiti islands, as well as Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington, Bushy Park near Whanganui and Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, Waikato.

Hihi have also recently been reintroduced to Rotokare in Taranaki.

They are the only birds known to sometimes mate face to face.