A stitch in time for endangered bird

A plan to help save the endangered stitchbird was launched today by Prime Minister Helen Clark and Conservation Minister Chris Carter on Tiritiri Matangi Island. This island sanctuary is one of the few places where the stitchbird can be seen.

The Hihi – Stitchbird Recovery Plan aims over time to bring back hihi or stitchbird to mainland New Zealand after an absence of more than 100 years. A single self-sustaining population remains on Little Barrier Island.

Helen Clark says the recovery plan is an exciting development in hihi conservation with its goal of creating four more self-sustaining populations to ensure survival of the species.

"The challenge is to take what works on Little Barrier and try to replicate it on other islands and the mainland. With research, careful management, and public support hihi have a real chance of getting a foothold on the mainland and surviving long term," Helen Clark said.

Hihi were once found throughout the North Island but declined because of loss of forested areas and the introduction of predators and avian diseases. This bird is now listed as a ‘nationally endangered’ species.

Chris Carter said stitchbirds have been successfully transferred to Tiritiri Matangi and Kapiti islands, but require intensive human management to survive.

"Key to this recovery plan is finding sites where the forest provides enough food and nesting sites, and pests such as rats and possums are absent or controlled, so that the bird populations can become self-sustaining," Chris Carter said.

A grant of $18,500 from the New Zealand National Parks and Conservation Foundation will help fund research into hihi recovery.

Recent genetic analyis has revealed hihi may belong to a new family of birds (yet to be named) found only in New Zealand, like the wattle bird family of kokako and saddleback. Previously it was thought they belonged to the honeyeater family along with tui and bellbird.

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