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An untagged and almost fully grown kiwi has been found in the Kaweka Forest Park, another notch in the belt for those trying to revive our national bird in Hawke’s Bay.
Manager Deb Harrington of Save Our Kaweka Kiwi said the volunteers are waiting in anticipationfor the gender reveal of the “beautiful brown bird”.
She said feather samples were sent off for testing, but judging by the size of the bird, they thought it might be a male.
“It’s the only way we can know for sure if it’s a male or female ... but going by the size, its weight and bill measurement, we are leaning, or maybe it’s wishful thinking, that it’s a male.”
The kiwi was found in the eastern part of the park off Black Birch Range around two weeks ago when Harrington and fellow volunteer and Department of Conservation worker Kahori Nakagawa were out searching for another kiwi, named Carrot, for a routine health check.
Kahori Nakagawa holds an untagged kiwi named Nagi found in the Kaweka Forest Park in May 2025.
It was by chance they chose the route they did to walk back after completing the task, and Nakagawa’s conservation kiwi dog alerted the women to the presence of the bird.
“Kahori had a look and sure enough, here is this beautiful little bird hunkering down in a hole,” Harrington said.
She said their examinations revealed the bird did not have a microchip.
“It means that it is not one we have raised through our creche, so it was a wild-born kiwi that had survived that first vulnerable year.”
Ecstatic with the unusual find, they named the 1720g bird Nagi, which translates to calm.
“It was actually quite placid and very chilled out because, being wild, it wouldn’t have been handled at all.”
They also attached a tracking transmitter to the bird so it could be monitored. Typically, the devices were attached to males because they sat on and incubated the eggs.
Harrington said that to date, the organisation had released more than 350 chicks to the Kaweka Forest Park.
She said that due to their extensive trapping network of 1300 traps checked monthly, they had seen an increase in other vulnerable species.
This included a return of the blue duck population to the Makino River and an increase in Wainuia Clarki snail numbers.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
