Wellington's native bird numbers continue to soar

Wellington's latest bird monitoring report shows council and community-driven pest trapping schemes are working, with native bird numbers in the city continuing to climb.

The State and Trends in the Diversity, Abundance and Distribution of Birds in Pōneke report drew on data from 100 five-minute bird count stations across the city, as well as reported observations from recreational birders and professional ornithologists through online databases.

Now in its 14th year, the annual report showed native bird encounters had increased by 55 percent since 2011.

The tūī was the most frequently counted species during the latest monitoring periods, followed by the tauhou, riroriro and the pīwakawaka.

But after the tūī it was the kākā observed most often, which Wellington City Council urban ecology manager Daniela Biaggio attributed to their boisterous behaviour.

"It's definitely a very conspicuous bird," she said.

For Wellington residents, it was hard to miss them.

"They're like teenagers," Island Bay resident Chris Logan said. "They make a lot of noise. And they strip the bark off trees to get at the sap - sometimes enough to kill them."

Logan worked as a landscaper and a contractor for Wellington City Council, spending most of his time outdoors. He had heard plenty of anecdotes about the havoc wreaked by kākā.

"I did a job in Brooklyn recently, and my client had a big walnut tree that was a really good fruiter. For the last five years she has lost all her walnuts to kākā - they just cut a hole and eat the nut out, leaving her with pretty much nothing."

Morgan Jones lived in Wadestown overlooking the bush. He said it was the kākā that incentivised him to re-roof his house.

"We bought this place in 2007, and it had a roof from the 1960s. The kākā used to pull the rivets out and drop them on the deck. So, we decided we needed to hurry up and get the roof replaced."

Kākā wreak so much havoc they were known to some Wellington bird enthusiasts as "the bogans of the sky". Even Zealandia's head of conservation, Jo Ledington, had experience being rudely awoken by their screeches early in the morning.

"I've actually heard of people double glazing their houses so they don't get woken up by kākā at 5am," she joked.

While she received some complaints about the birds' behaviour in the earlier days of their re-introduction, Ledington had not had any in a while. She said you would be hard-pressed to find a Wellingtonian who is unhappy with the arrangement.

Logan agreed.

"The kākā are reclaiming the territory that was once theirs anyway," he said. "They were here centuries before we were, so it's an adjustment that humans need to make."

Tap, tap tapping the sap

Kākā were first re-introduced to Karori's wildlife sanctuary, Zealandia, in 2002. Now, they are frequently spotted around suburbs like Khandallah, Island Bay and Miramar - and are even establishing themselves as far north as Johnsonville and Tawa.

Ledington said the thought it gave her goosebumps.

"I grew up in Southland, and kākā weren't even on my radar," she said. "But now, it's just so normal for Wellington kids. We had some of our rangatahi in a few weeks ago and I asked them who saw tūī, kererū or kākā today."

"They all said 'yeah - of course - we live in Wellington!'"

With the kākā, it's not all good news. The birds have a habit of tapping into tree branches to get at the sap underneath.

Wellington Botanic Gardens curator David Sole said they have had to remove at least eight trees in this year alone thanks to kākā damage.

"They strip the bark off the trees, especially the soft bark trees like sequoias, Leyland cypresses and younger pines. Spring is the worst time of the year because the trees have evolved to have flushes of sap in the spring."

But it was mostly exotic trees that did not fare well, Ledington explained.

"Native trees and kākā evolved together. So, if you've got a native tree, you can just trust they will find their balance.

"If you have exotic trees in your backyard…. that might not be so successful."

Sole said the Botanic Gardens was committed to conifers, but going forward, it would look to replace any damaged trees with native conifers that could coexist with the kākā.

It was an adjustment, but not a problem, he added.

"Europeans brought these trees here, and kākā were here long before that. They co-evolved with native vegetation and native trees - so we are the problem, and we have to find the solution."

Biaggio said Wellington residents' ability to accept and adapt to this sort of change was part of what made the city special.

"This report is a huge reminder of the amazing collective impact of people working together across Wellington.

"We have thousands of people trapping in backyards and reserves, working together with the council and our contractors, and this shows the payoff from that."