Media Release

RELEASE: Tuesday 15 November

Rooks snapped by vigilance

Council are thankful to vigilant members of the community who recently reported sightings of Rooks which have contributed to a successful eradication programme during spring.

Gisborne District Council’s Biosecurity team have been conducting their annual surveillance for the bird pest during September and October.

Biosecurity officers had tracked the sightings in Outer Kaiti and successfully removed two adult birds and two juveniles from their nest site at the end of Wallis Street.

“Rooks are an extremely invasive pest, and periodically we get birds from Wairoa trying to establish nests in the district,” says shared services science manager, Lois Easton.

Ms Easton says in large numbers, Rooks can be destructive to our environment.

“They can cause significant losses to farming and cropping industries and leave large areas of pasture bare, and vulnerable to weed infestations and wind erosion.

“They are a clever bird, if a nesting group are spooked they will split up and disperse to other locations making it even more difficult to locate them.

“We’re very pleased our biosecurity team managed to get to them quickly before the juvenile birds left the nest.”

Report any sightings of Rooks to Council, 24 hours a day on 06 867 2049.

ENDS

Quick Facts:

• Rooks are classified as an eradication pest bird in the Gisborne region.

• They’re larger than a magpie and coloured mostly black with a violet blue glossy sheen.

• Rooks have a distinctive noisy “KAAH” calls and frequently nest in Eucalyptus or Pine trees.

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