Opua School pupils are doing their bit to relieve a local housing crisis by installing apartments on the Bay of Islands foreshore - for little blue penguins or korora.
Brad Windust, of the environmental group Bay Bush Action, donated 15 nesting boxes to the children of Opua School to decorate and place under the Opua Cruising Club.
The site used to be home to many penguins but when the building was replaced several years ago the birds had no safe place to hide from predators such as cats, dogs, ferrets and stoats. The nesting boxes will help make up for that .
Bay Bush Action member Peter Trimble said little blue penguins readily adopted nesting boxes, in some cases occupying them within hours. Breeding success in boxes was equal to or higher than that observed at natural sites. Mr Trimble said little blue penguin numbers had fallen markedly in recent years so safe nesting sites were crucial to keeping them off the endangered list.
Although the boxes, installed on October 3, were late for the current breeding season it was hoped they could attract any stragglers to get a colony started. Adult birds came ashore between May and June to prepare nests and usually laid two eggs from August to November.