Visionary project to bring bellbirds back to your backyard

The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) is leading an ambitious conservation project to bring bellbirds (korimako) back to the islands of the Hauraki Gulf.

Four releases of bellbirds this Sunday will see up to 200 of the delicate olive-green birds, with their distinctive bell-like song, translocated from Tawharanui Regional Park and Tiritiri Matangi Island sanctuary. They will be released on two sites on Waiheke Island, on Motuihe Island and in the Hamilton Gardens.

Bellbirds have been absent from the northern New Zealand mainland, including Auckland and large Gulf islands, since the mid-1800’s when ship rats and stoats arrived in New Zealand. Current Auckland strongholds are limited to pest-free islands and the Tawharanui mainland island sanctuary.

Bellbirds are an important bird in forest ecology for their role as a native plant pollinator. They are also famous for their melodic singing.

ARC Chairman Michael Lee has championed this visionary project and has been a long-time campaigner for the restoration of this famous New Zealand songbird.

“This bellbird translocation operation is one of the biggest and most complex ever attempted. I am sure it will be seen as historic,” said Chairman Lee.

“A transformational leap in restoring these long lost birds to the islands of the inner Hauraki Gulf and the northern New Zealand mainland – from where they have been absent for 150 years.”

The Tawharanui and Tiritiri Matangi bellbirds will be released in batches of up to 50 at Whakanewha Regional Park and Fenwick Reserve on Waiheke Island, Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf and Hamilton Gardens in the Waikato.

“Unlike 20 years ago, there are now large protected areas on Waiheke Island and Motuihe is free of predators,” says Mr Lee

“If rat management and pest control continues, over time we will see the colonisation of bellbirds throughout northern New Zealand.

“They will once again be common sights in marine suburbs and visitors to suburban backyards,” he says.

Dr Tim Lovegrove, ARC natural heritage scientist, has lead the project and worked with scientists and experts from the Department of Conservation (DOC), Landcare Research, Massey and Waikato Universities, the Motuihe Trust, Hamilton Gardens, Environment Waikato, Fenwick Reserve and the ARC.

“This has been a collaborative effort to restore a significant locally-extinct bird to the inner Gulf Islands and Hamilton city,” says Dr Lovegrove.

“We have seen bellbirds make their own way to Tawharanui Regional Park from Little Barrier Island and form a more than 800-strong population, and sightings have been recorded at Shakespear Regional Park on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, visiting from Tiritiri Matangi Island sanctuary.

“In just five years the bellbird has become the second most common native bush bird at Tawharanui after the tui.

“This project offers these important native pollinators and seed dispersers a helping hand to re-establish across the region and increase the genetic diversity of our Auckland populations.

“The releases are being designed so that several research questions can be explored,” says Dr Lovegrove.

All birds being released will be individually colour-banded and one-third of birds per release site will be radio-tagged. The Whakanewha Regional Park and Hamilton Gardens sites will trial sound-anchoring technology to help establish the birds in their new surroundings by playing familiar recorded bellbird calls.

Feeding patterns and bird dispersal will also be monitored for research purposes.

DOC’s Auckland Area Manager Brett Butland says the upcoming bellbird release will help breathe life back into the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

“We hope the bellbirds will settle in well to their new homes, but we’d love to see them eventually spread throughout the Gulf and hopefully to the mainland too,” says Mr Butland.

“With Rangitoto and Motutapu well on their way to becoming pest-free, and many other islands in the Gulf already pest-free, there will be plenty of suitable habitats for these bellbirds to thrive. In fact we’ve already seen bellbirds make their own way to Motutapu.”

The public are invited to the releases on Sunday 9 May.

• Whakanewha Regional Park, Waiheke Island, 11am. Meet at the conservation car park for the 10 minute walk to the release site.

• Fenwick Reserve release will take place at the same time as the Whakanewha Regional Park release.

• Motuihe Island, ferry departs 8am and 10am

• Hamilton Gardens, 8am, see www.ew.govt.nz for further information.

ENDS

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