Project returns native seabirds to Hawke's Bay range near Napier

The mottled petrel or kōrure were found in the ranges of Hawke's Bay, but now only on southern offshore islands such as Whenua Hou (Codfish Island). Photo / Supplied

The first return of native birds to their historical nesting site on a Hawke's Bay range has been hailed a success.

This programme started in 2014 as part of the Poutiri Ao ō Tāne project, an ecological and social restoration initiative and sister project to Cape to City.

It has seen almost 200 endemic kōrure travel more than 1100km from Whenua Hou, an island off the coast of Rakiura/Stewart Island, to their new home on the Maungaharuru Range 60km north of Napier.

Chicks were translocated at a young age, because kōrure take a mental picture of their nest site when they emerge from the burrow for the first time. Their nest site is where they will return to breed after three to four years at sea.

The translocations are part of an effort to restore seabird populations, which are culturally significant to Māori, and ecologically significant, partly because of the nutrients they deposit from the sea into native bush.

Department of Conservation principal science adviser Graeme Taylor said in the past seabirds bred inland in their millions on the mountain ranges, providing the forest with marine nutrients.

"The fertiliser supports plant growth and the burrows birds dig provide a home for reptiles like tuatara and various insects and plants that thrive in a nutrient-enriched environment."

Returning some of the species which originally nested inland - tāiko or black petrels, the kōrure and tītī - was the first chance to see if seabirds could again be part of the North Island inland ecosystems.

"Getting one bird of each species back is the start of what we hope is a return of many translocated chicks to come back and breed at this site."

Maungaharuru-Tangitū trustee Tania Hopmans said they were grateful to Whenua Hou for the "opportunity to rejuvenate these taonga to our Maunga".

"Poutiri Ao ō Tāne has been a great project to get us started and we thank the project partners for their mauri. We look forward to the continued collaborative efforts in the region in rejuvenating our Maunga."