City Parrots

TVNZ

In a world first, an ambitious plan is being undertaken to capture more than 100 rare parakeets and relocate them around the Hauraki Gulf.

The red-crowned kakariki are being moved in a bid to expand the species and to see how they cope with the change.

The kakariki are being moved to other islands in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf from their home on Little Barrier Island.

Nets were laid to capture the parrots on Little Barrier by a team of scientists, headed by parrot expert Luis Ortez-Catedral.

“No one has ever attempted to transfer 130 parrots from the same source to different sites over such a short period of time,” says Ortez-Catedral.

The project leader is a Mexican parrot expert and he is in New Zealand hoping to repopulate the Hauraki Gulf with one of the country’s rarest and most colourful birds.

“The species used to darken the skies when there were no predators and so they are a very important part of the ecosystem,” says Oztez-Catedral.

Little Barrier Island is a protected conservation reserve free of predators, and the kakariki thrives in abundance there.

What the scientists learn about the movement of parakeets in the new site will be a huge step in the understanding of the ecology of parrots worldwide.

That is why each captured bird is carefully processed - body dimensions are measured, blood samples are taken.

Some birds are fitted with a transmitter, thereby allowing scientists to monitor their movements.

The birds are then boxed and ready for transfer off the island.

In what is considered stage one of the project, 50 birds will be taken from Great Barrier Island to nearby Motuihe Island.

Stage two will see more birds taken to Rakino Island, and stage three even more birds will be taken to start their new life on the mainland just north of Auckland.

But a handful of birds have already died with post-mortems revealing stress is the killer.

Ortez-Catedral and his team want the fit birds moved as soon as possible, and as quickly as possible, to where their new custodians wait.

“Our whole aim is to bring back rare endangered birds so every man and woman in Auckland can come out and see what New Zealand used to be like,” says John Laurence, spokesperson for the Motuihe Trust.

On release the birds don’t look back.

For Luis, it is a relief. For others its hope, that one day all New Zealanders may be able to enjoy a bird’s eye view of the Kakariki.