Whiteheads returning to North Island

A small native bird will return to the top of the North Island for the first time in 120 years on Saturday, when about 40 native whiteheads will be released in the Hunua Ranges, south of Auckland.

The fully protected birds have not been seen there since 1880, when it is thought they were wiped out by ship rats.

The birds will be transferred from Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf to a 600ha block in the Hunuas, also the site of a joint Auckland Regional Council-Department of Conservation kokako recovery programme.