Dinner time! A doting grownup tara iti, or fairy tern, affords its chick a freshly caught fish.
Photo: Supplied / Darren Markin
New Zealand’s rarest chook appears set for a bumper breeding season this summer season with 5 fledglings already putting out on their very own and as many as eight extra chicks to observe.
That won’t sound like many however provided that the entire world inhabitants of tara iti, or fairy terns, is lower than 40, that could be a large increase to the species’ possibilities of survival.
It can also be a much-needed morale increase for volunteers and Department of Conservation workers taking care of the birds, after the disastrous 2022-23 season during which Cyclone Gabrielle killed 5 adults and all however one chick.
DOC supervisor Shelley Ogle stated the present season was monitoring to be the very best since 2013-14.
“So it is actually lifted our spirits after final season, which was fairly devastating for us all.”
Ogle stated tara iti bred at solely 4 places – Papakanui, on the Kaipara Harbour, and at Pākiri, Mangawhai and Waipū, on the east coast, north of Auckland.
Ogle stated the uncommon shorebird had kin in Australia and New Caledonia, however the New Zealand sub-species was distinctive.
“There are fewer than 40 of them left, which makes them our most endangered endemic chook. They’re extremely threatened by every kind of issues,” she stated.
By comparability, the critically endangered kākāpō had a inhabitants of almost 250.
The key downside going through tara iti was that they preferred the identical environments as people – sandy seashores with dunes and estuaries.
“They nest in shell and sand banks above the excessive tide mark on fashionable seashores, which makes them vulnerable to [predators] in addition to disturbance by folks, four-wheel drives and dogs,” she stated.
“And as we noticed final season, they’re additionally at large threat from huge tides and nasty storms. So they do have so much towards them. But fortunately, we’re placing so much into them to try to defend them and convey these numbers up.”
A tara iti, or fairy tern, returns to shore with its catch.
Photo: Supplied / Darren Markin
Ogle stated the birds had been now nearing the top of their breeding season.
So far 5 chicks had fledged, or left the nest, with 4 extra chicks nonetheless being raised by their mother and father. Another 4 had been being raised in captivity and in addition regarded promising.
“Last yr we had Cyclone Gabrielle come by way of proper on the finish of the season, and whereas we had three chicks fledge, two of them perished together with 5 adults. And so we misplaced an enormous portion of the inhabitants, which was fairly devastating.”
It was too early to say if this yr’s bumper season would make up for final summer season’s losses.
Tara iti lived greater than 20 years and didn’t begin breeding till they had been aged between two and 4, so it could take a while earlier than the latest additions made an actual influence on the inhabitants.
In the meantime DOC workers, iwi, volunteers and contractors would hold working to offer them the very best likelihood potential of reaching breeding age.
That included ongoing predator management and monitoring of nest websites.
“And then simply earlier than the breeding season begins we’ll improve the habitat and create safer areas for them to nest in. Some websites are susceptible to being flooded in actually excessive tides, so we’ll create raised shell patches that we are able to defend and monitor extra simply.
“That must be achieved almost yearly as a result of dune environments are so movable and unpredictable.”
Tara iti, or fairy terns, are fiercely protecting mother and father.
Photo: Supplied / Darren Markin
Eggs deemed to be at too nice a threat from storms or predators had been taken to Auckland Zoo or an on-site incubator, whereas pretend eggs persuaded the mother and father to carry the nest till the true ones had been able to hatch.
Once the breeding season was over, tara iti flew to the Kaipara Harbour for winter.
Ogle conceded it was an enormous quantity of labor for a small variety of birds, nevertheless it was “completely” value it.
They had been a taonga species treasured to iwi and native residents, and fashioned a part of the ecosystem’s complicated net of relationships.
“They’re additionally actually cool little birds. Watching them fly is like nothing else. They’re such agile little fliers they usually’re lovely. They’re like little fairies actually, I’m positive that is why they’re known as fairy terns,” Ogle stated.
“But my favorite factor about them is how superb they’re as mother and father. It actually shocks me that the inhabitants has obtained so low as a result of they’re like no different mother and father I’ve ever seen. They’re so decided to maintain you away from the nest,” she stated.
“They’re these little 60 or 70 gram birds combating off a 60 or 70 kilogram human. They swoop down on you, they do not cease, they’re so decided to maintain their nests alive. They’re a fairly implausible chook should you handle to get out and spot one.”
The tara iti or fairy tern, in flight.
Photo: Supplied / Darren Markin
Ogle stated numbers had fallen so low as a result of the ecosystems they wanted had been massively compromised by human improvement.
Threats included overfishing, sedimentation, ocean warming and excessive climate.
“And when their atmosphere adjustments naturally, they do not have anyplace else as a result of the place they’d usually go has been developed and is now not secure for them. They’re fairly restricted to locations we additionally need to be as people, as a result of it is enjoyable to play in estuaries and drive over dunes.”
People who needed to assist the birds ought to hold out of fenced-off nesting areas and hold their dogs on a leash, or hold their pets off seashores they weren’t presupposed to be on.
Another menace to tara iti was folks leaving bait or fish frames on the seaside. That attracted sea gulls which might then predate fairy tern chicks.
“Four-wheel-driving is one other large one. These birds are tiny compared to a four-drive wheel. Sometimes they will hunker, typically they will try to attack the car. They’re very decided mother and father, however should you drive over that nest you in all probability would not even discover it.”
Anyone who was harassed by a chook on a seaside was in all probability too near its nest.
“Most of our shorebirds are very, superb mother and father, and they’re going to run into the hearth to try to defend their youngsters. So should you simply again away after they’re doing that to you, you will give them the house they should carry the following technology by way of.”
Ogle hoped tara iti numbers would at some point attain a degree that such intensive intervention was now not wanted.
“It can be superb if we did not have to watch each single website they nest at each single summer season, which might imply that they are doing it on their very own they usually do not want our assist. And that is the ultimate aim – to place ourselves out of a job as a result of they’ll do it themselves.”
A tara iti chick steps briefly out of its nest at Waipū to discover.
Photo: Supplied / Darren Markin
