Newborn Kiwi chick found near Whangārei road lucky to be alive

Kendrick the kiwi with Whangārei Native Bird Recovery Centre founder Robert Webb. Photo / Tania Whyte

A newborn kiwi chick is recovering well and lucky to be alive after a rough entry into the world in Tūtūkaka.

The newborn kiwi was luckily found last week by none other than professional conservationist and kiwi handler Cam McInnes after a swim with his daughter.

The pair had been swimming in Ngunguru River on Friday afternoon and came home up Pukenui Rd and the Old Coach Road cycle track.

“My daughter and I had just been for a swim and were coming up the track, and we just happened to see something furry and wriggling on the side of the track.”

“It was this poor little kiwi. It was still damp and cold and had a bit of egg membrane on its back and everything.”

It was at the base of a steep bank, but McInnes said he couldn’t see a burrow anywhere.

“My eyes are sort of trained for looking for dead kiwi on the side of the road because we do lose a few of them.”

McInnes said he clutched the baby kiwi to his chest to keep it warm, then called Pete Graham at Northland Regional Council and Robert Webb at the Whangārei Native Bird Recovery Centre.

At home, McInnes’s daughter Esmé kept it warm in her lap while he placed hot water bottles and towels into a box.

Kendrick the kiwi with Whangārei Native Bird Recovery Centre founder Robert Webb. Photo / Tania Whyte.

“She named him Kendrick, so we’ve been calling him Kendrick the kiwi.

“I drove him to Robert Webb, who put him in with another kiwi chick found in a similar state last week, and they snuggled up together in the corner of the heated box.”

Webb gave it a few hours to warm up before giving it a more thorough inspection, and said it was probably about 5 hours old, uninjured and very lucky.

McInnes went looking for the kiwi’s burrow and found a dad kiwi sitting on another egg close to where he found Kendrick.

“I’ve since been back to check if I could find the burrow, and it’s a good five metres up a bank. That little kiwi has had a proper tumble.

“Not a very well-built house - a room with a view, but a bit of a downside,” McInnes said.

McInnes said the finding showed that you never knew where a kiwi nest might be.

“So, all of these places where people walk their dogs, it really is important that they’re walked on the lead.

Whangārei Native Bird Recovery Centre founder Webb had been caring for another kiwi found in a similar situation in the Bay of Islands, but it passed away on Sunday night.

“He must’ve had internal injuries. It’s wonderful this fella [Kendrick] survived.

“He’s lucky he survived the fall down the bank.”

Webb thinks Kendrick is a boy due to the bird’s short bill length; female kiwis tend to have longer bills.

“We won’t feed him for about another five days, because they have a fat tummy on them... that’s what he will live on for the first seven days.”

Kendrick will remain in a warm incubator - which is monitored by an online webcam - at the Bird Recovery Centre until he is ready to move to a bigger pen.

“[His] parents don’t feed him at all. After seven days [in the wild], he’ll come out of the burrow and he will have to look for his own food.

“After living in the burrow for about three weeks, he’ll come out of the burrow one night, and he’ll go one way and [the other kiwi] will go the other way, and that’s the last they’ll see of each other.”

Webb will gradually transfer the bird into two larger heated pens, one with soil for the kiwi to peck at for vitamins and minerals.

“We will keep him here ‘til probably another - probably five or six weeks here, before he’ll be ready to go back out the wild.

“Once he’s in the pen outside, that hardens him up, ready for the going back into the wild. So there’d be no more heating or anything like that.

“That’s the best part. The sooner we can get him home, the better,” Webb said.

Kendrick the kiwi with Whangārei Native Bird Recovery Centre founder Robert Webb. Photo / Tania Whyte.