Miramar Peninsula Out of Favour with Native Birds … for Now
Miramar Peninsula Out of Favour with Native Birds … for Now
While the halo effect of Zealandia may be
responsible for the rising number and variety of native
birds in many Wellington suburbs, they’ve been slow to
wing their way to the Miramar Peninsula.
A recent baseline survey by Greater Wellington Regional Council has found that the peninsula remains dominated by introduced species such as house sparrows, blackbirds, starling, chaffinch and greenfinch. There are more house sparrows, for example, than the combined number of native bird species peninsula.
“But there are bright spots in the survey, and there are grounds for optimism,” says Dr Philippa Crisp, Greater Wellington Team Leader, Terrestrial Ecosystems and Quality.
“We found lots of tui throughout the peninsula, which reflects the large number being seen across the city. Citizen scientists on the peninsula have also reported shining cuckoos, bellbirds, kaka and karearea and we expect morepork are present, though we didn’t survey at night.
“While there are fewer native birds on the peninsula than elsewhere in Wellington the gradual elimination of predators in Miramar will help support greater numbers of tui and other native species.
“There will be more and more birds on the peninsula in the future. It’s a waiting game as we rebuild a more secure habitat for native species through intensifying our efforts to eradicate predators such as rats, stoats and weasels. Create a safe space and the birds will come.”
Dr Crisp says the survey will provide one benchmark against which to measure the success of Predator Free Miramar, which aims to eliminate bird predators from the peninsula as part of the broader Predator Free Wellington initiative, supported by Greater Wellington, Wellington City Council and the NEXT Foundation.
“Vigorous and intensive backyard trapping by local volunteer groups has helped contain explosive growth in rat numbers throughout the peninsula. We believe the time and effort they invest in trapping will ultimately pay off in a greater abundance and variety of birdlife.
”Over time we will also see a re-balancing of the ratio of introduced to native birds on the peninsula, though the area has little forest habitat and would benefit from significant tree planting. That’s happening in some of the urban areas but there’s scope for a lot more,” says Dr Crisp.
“To encourage native birds back to Miramar it’d be great if residents would plant a native tree as well as have a trap in their backyard.”
Key facts
from the survey:
The five minute bird count report was produced for Greater Wellington in March (following peer review) and reported results from 84 stations, supplemented by information from citizen scientists, whose observations were described in the report.
Species diversity
• 20 bird species were detected
• 11 were native (6 being commonly found in open forest)
• 9 were introduced
Species abundance
• An average of 13.7 introduced birds were found at each of the 84 bird count stations Vs 2.5 native forest birds
• Tui and silvereye were the most common native forest birds
• House sparrows were the most common introduced species, found at a rate of 7.3 birds per station, and blackbirds at 3 per station
Species distribution
• Tui were the most distributed of native birds, being seen at 38 of 84 stations and in all major habitats (and more so on Mt Crawford and in the established garden areas of Seatoun and Eastern Bays)
• Silvereye were the next most common, but found at only 29 stations
• All other native species were much less widely distributed.
Recommendations from the report are that:
• The count become an annual programme
• Local citizens should be encouraged to record and submit their observations
• A project should be developed enlisting citizen scientists to map the distribution of morepork on the peninsula.
ENDS