More native wildlife released into Maungatautari Ecological Island

Whiteheads are primarily insectivorous - they eat a variety of spiders, moths, caterpillars and beetles although they do supplement their ‘meat' diet with the fruit of several native trees including the matipo and mahoe. Whiteheads form flocks in winter, and often form mixed feeding flocks with other insectivorous birds like saddlebacks, fantails and silvereyes. The smaller species like whiteheads seem to take advantage of the vigourous foraging of the larger birds like saddlebacks which disturb small insects for them to catch.

Whiteheads return to Maungatautari
March 2009. For the second time in a month the Maungatautari Trust has released a locally extinct native bird species into the pest free southern enclosure on Maungatautari.

Sixty whiteheads (popokatea) captured on Little Barrier Island during the last week were flown to the mountain sanctuary courtesy of Mitch Plaw, Architectural Profiles Limited, in his privately owned helicopter.

20 years since last whitehead sighting
"It's about 20 years since whiteheads were officially sighted on Maungatautari," said Trust ecologist Chris Smuts-Kennedy.

"These 60 birds are another important step in the restoration process. We reintroduce them now and let their numbers slowly build up. Whiteheads are likely to become the most commonly seen and heard bird on the mountain - quite simply without them our restoration would be very incomplete ecologically, visually, acoustically, and aesthetically. "

Maungatautari has a variety of suitable habitat for whiteheads as the mountain has at least eight distinct altitudinal vegetation zones - and these birds are expected to utilise most of that. In winter the birds will form noisy flocks which will be a highlight for visitors.

Whiteheads are the fifth bird species to be reintroduced on the mountain after kiwi, kaka, takahe and hihi.

ANZ bank
ANZ National Bank Rural Manager Neil Warren attended the release on behalf of the ANZ National Staff Foundation who co-sponsored the whitehead release along with World Wide Fund for Nature.

Mr Warren said that getting a number of species back on the mountain was important and he was delighted that the Staff Fund was able to help with that.

Whitehead release. Photo credit Phil Brown