New Zealand fairy tern: Battle lines drawn to help protect country's rarest bird

Wednesday, 30 September 2020

With fewer than 40 fairy terns/tara iti, the Department of Conservation gets excited every time it sees one, such as this one spotted again after six months of no sightings.

The Department of Conservation has drawn its battle lines to help protect the country’s rarest bird – the critically endangered New Zealand fairy tern.

Also known as tara iti, there are fewer than 40 adult birds in the species, so the department is doing all it can to ensure breeding is successful.

The Department of Conservation team keen to protect tara iti/fairy tern nesting sites this year is (from front left) Ayla Wiles, Molly Hicks, Shelley Ogle, (back from left) Shannan Courtenay, Les Judd, Alex Wilson, John Neilsen, Deane Williams, Jacob Ball, Amanda Hunt and Nikki Hartley.

On Thursday, rangers and trained volunteers will start monitoring nesting sites – a seven-day-a-week operation over the next five months.

While nesting sites were once widespread around the North Island and the eastern South Island, the fairy tern now breeds at only four main sites in north Auckland and southern Northland: Papakanui Spit, Pakiri Beach, Waipū and Mangawhai sandspit.

**READ MORE:

The endangered fairy tern is being protected by the Department of Conservation and the NZ Defence Force. (First published January 2017)

* Man-made nest sites to boost breeding for endangered fairy tern/tara iti

* Rare fairy tern gets 20% population boost with birth of seven chicks

A NZ fairy tern or tara iti chick in a nest, which is just a scratching in the sand, making the chicks vulnerable to both weather and preditors. (File photo)

* Critically endangered New Zealand fairy tern lays egg in Northland

The nests are at risk from the weather, pests and human disturbance, such as people riding horses, flying drones, using jet skis and lighting fires near the nests.

Last year a fertile egg was also attacked by a rat.

The tara iti/fairy tern rangers and trained volunteers are essential to the survival of the species, Department of Conservation biodiversity ranger Ayla Wiles said.

“They keep an eye on the adult birds during breeding and nesting, and monitor chicks. Along with doing compliance and public advocacy, they also keep records of feeding and other behaviour to look at long-term trends in relation to things like fish stocks and weather impacts,” she said.

The monitoring appears to be working, with seven chicks fledged last season, boosting the population by 20 per cent.

Wiles said some chicks from last season have been spotted back at the breeding sites, including one chick which needed supplementary feeding.

“That bird is now making regular appearances at Waipū and looking very well-fed… We don’t expect him to breed for at least a couple of years but are just happy to see him make it through his first winter.”

The department expects the first tara iti eggs to be laid early summer and chicks to hatch around Christmas or New Year’s Day.