Conservation Comment: Titipounamu/rifleman released at Bushy Park

Caelyn Hossack, 9, opens the crate to release the first of a group of titipounamu at Bushy Park Sanctuary last month. Photo / Bevan Conley

OPINION

It has been a huge month at Tarapuruhi/Bushy Park — culminating in the return of a national treasure to your local ecosanctuary.

There are few places where you can see such an incredible, verdant, green-canopied forest in Aotearoa. Even national parks struggle against possums, rats, stoats, deer, and goats. Just up the road from Kai Iwi, we are lucky to have a forest that has been freed from their pillaging and is now a couple of decades into full recovery.

Enter the smallest of all native birds to join the other rare and beautiful members of our feathered choir. The saying, “Ahakoa he iti, he taonga — Although small a treasure”, could have been made for the little titipounamu, aka rifleman.

Talk about miniaturisation. On to a full skeleton, with spine and skull, add in virtually all the organs we have, plus hundreds of feathers and the whole bird weighs less than two 10¢ coins. Put another way — scrunch up an A4 sheet of paper really tight, and you’d have a pretty good weight and size match for our newest arrival.

What do the two names for this bird have in common? Titipounamu includes an obvious reference to greenstone, and green is the colour that riflemen of old wore, presumably for disguise in woodlands.

So when you visit Tarapuruhi/Bushy Park and first spot this new treasure, it will be the tiny, busy, olive-green bird that looks like it has no tail.

Most likely it will be using its cute little upward-pointing beak to tweezer out little bugs as it jinks its way up and down tree trunks. Sixty individuals were introduced last month so there is a good chance you may see one.

The old story that Tane tasked his birds with caring for the forest, including controlling insects, matches with the teamwork of the crew we now fully see in our local ecosanctuary.

Each species has its niche speciality. Few will not have seen the aerobatic displays of fantails/piwakawaka as they snaffle up flying insects. Any visitor to Tarapuruhi can also see the toutouwai/robins clearing the forest floor of every minibeast that moves, and since last year, popokatea/whiteheads may be heard or spotted hunting among the leaves in the canopy above.

Titipounamu/rifleman cleaning the trunks completes the crew of our little insectivores. For the bird nerds, rifleman/titipounamu are one of two surviving species of the native wren family — which is a real outlier in the evolution of birds.

When it comes to the world’s perching birds, it’s like New Zealand wrens are on one branch and the rest of the world’s species are all on the other. That indicates an ancient lineage but seeing them busy at work, they are anything but crusty old relics.

Ecosanctuaries like Tarapuruhi Bushy Park need your support. Check out our website and join the adventure of ecological restoration. What’s next? Tuatara, native frogs, giant weta ...