Bird of the Year win follows nationwide census of kererū

Monday, 15 October 2018

Kererū thrive on fruiting native trees and shrubs. Video first published in October 2018.

The kererū's Bird of the Year victory is being labelled 'fantastic timing' by the co-ordinator of a nationwide census that just wrapped up for the native pigeon.

The Great Kererū Count is an annual tally-up of kererū (wood pigeon) based on data collected by members of the public.

Co-ordinator Tony Stoddard said although the count's findings were positive, parts of New Zealand were still struggling to look after the newly crowned victor.

The kererū's Bird of the Year victory is being labelled 'good timing' by the organiser of a nationwide pigeon census.

'Kererū rely on pest control to thrive and in the Far North, they're having a lot of issues [with that].

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'They only lay one egg in their nest every year so if that gets predated by a possum or a stoat or a rat, that's basically it for the year.'

Stoddard said protecting kererū was crucial for New Zealand's native forests because of the birds' seed-distributing abilities, especially for large native trees such as tawa, taraire and matai.

The birds were essential for New Zealand forest regeneration because no other mainland bird was large enough to fulfil the distribution function across such a range of native podocarp trees.

The majestic bird can live to be over 20 years old.

The huia and pio pio used to perform similar duties but are now extinct, so protecting kererū was paramount, he said.

'Kererū really is king of the forest and we need to make sure we look after them.'

Stoddard described kererū as the 'worst nest builders in the world'.

One of the bird's abilities was its knack for eating large karaka berries by the dozen - the equivalent of a human eating a whole orange in a single hit, 12 times over.

But what they managed to accomplish in the world of competitive eating wasn't matched in nest making skills, with Stoddard labelling them 'the worst nest builders in the world'.

A kererū eating a karaka tree berry is the equivalent of a human eating a whole orange in one mouthful.

'They make appalling nests. If you remember that game 'pick up sticks', that's pretty much it.'

And in areas without pest control, the nests were a target with 85 - 100 per cent of eggs failing to survive predation.

Where there was pest control, the success rate was 80 - 90 per cent.

Aside from predation, other threats to kererū included crashing into man-made objects such as fast-moving vehicles, overhead power wires, fences and windows.

Illegal hunting was also an issue for the almost 19,000 birds counted as part of the Great Count.

Final voting figures for Bird of the Year showed the kererū received 5833 votes with second-place kākāpō well behind on 3772.