Editorial: Birds offer glimpse of primal past

The translocation of the toutouwai (North Island robin) is welcome news. Photo File

Photographs of endemic birds released back into their natural habitats are right up there with pictures of dead stoats in traps.

Today's picture of the toutouwai (North Island robin) and miromiro (North Island tomtit) translocated to Maraetotara Plateau are both heartwarming and sad.

Sad because it plays out like former orphans being reunited with their parents. Hence the fact we've have had to facilitate this is both commendable and lamentable.

The toutouwai and miromiro are being captured at Maungataniwha in Northern Hawke's Bay and Boundary Stream Mainland Island, and released into Hundred Acre Bush and Maraetotara Scenic Reserve.

Boundary Stream is a veritable Jurassic Park of our region's endemic species. It's a hidden gem close to Tutira and well worth a trip.

Kaka, robins and kokako grace this stunning piece of bush.

It's truly a trip back in time. Amazing birdsong, and the inquisitive robins sit on branches just an arm's length away, suggesting an earlier innocence.

But what really takes you back is an 800-year-old matai, which DoC claims has seen the moa in its lifetime, but more notably, it's also seen the extinct pouakai eagle that laid claim (3m wingspan and 13kg in weight) to being the biggest, baddest eagle ever to have existed.

Human arrival precluded its survival.

Suffice to say the news of the two above species' reintroduction is another great milestone in the Cape to City project.

The wonderful initiative should be applauded in its efforts to ensure native species not only survive, but "thrive where we live, work, and play".