Kōkako

Matt Binns, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Callaeas wilsoni

Kōkako is now extinct in the Tangihua Ranges

In Northland There is small population in Mataraua Forest and they have been successfully reintroduced into Puketi forest. As the Northern population builds and once we have the pests under control we intend to reintroduce them here as well.

The Kōkako belongs to the endemic New Zealand wattlebirds, an ancient family of birds. This includes the extinct Huia and the south Island kōkako are also considered extinct.
other names include  blue-wattled crow,  hokako, honga, onga, honge, onge, pakara, werewere

Description

Length: 38 cm   Weight: 233 g (male) 218 g (female)  Similar species:  Tui,

A large songbird with a blue-grey body, striking black mask and small rich blue wattles that grow from the base of the bill, long strong legs and a long down-curved tail. The sexes are alike; juveniles have pink or lilac wattles. Kōkako characteristically bound and run among branches, interspersed with glides on short, rounded wings.

North Island Kōkako

Food

North Island Kōkako mainly eat fruit and leaves and, less often, flowers, moss, buds, nectar and invertebrates.

Habitat

They characteristically reside in tall, diverse native forest, usually with a canopy of tawa or taraire with emergent podocarps or kauri.
Mataraua Forest, north east of Waipoua, has the only remaining sustainable population of Kōkako in Northland. This population has recovered from a low level after several years of Conservation Department pest control. The Mataraua Kōkako are now numerous enough to allow the removal of some adult birds to establish a second Northland population in Puketi.

Breeding

Kōkako typically raise one brood during November-February, after which they moult. In occasional years of good food supply, the breeding season may last 6 months and up to three broods can be raised. Two-three pinkish-grey eggs are laid in cup nests c.13 m (range 3-25 m) up trees. Incubation is by the female alone for c.18 days. Both adults feed the nestlings.
Young fledge at 32-37 days old, and so nests are vulnerable to predation for about 7 weeks. Fledged young usually remain in parents’ territory for a few months, up to a year, and continue to be fed by both parents.

Nest description

Cup, varying from complex constructions with diverse vegetation placed on a large twig platform to simple scrapes on epiphyte clumps; both lined with tree-fern scales.

Recovery plan for Kōkako  in the Tangihua ranges

Issue

Kōkako rely on effective pest control of ship rats and possums (and to a less extent, stoats). The birds are largely restricted to areas where these pests are controlled over the Kōkako breeding season.
The south Island Kōkako are extinct and here has been a significant decline of North Island Kōkako. Management is reversing that trend in many areas now. Due to pest control, Kōkako numbers increased from less than 350 pairs in the 1990s to approximately 1,400 pairs in 2015.

Action

Only very effective and on going pest control and reintroduction will return the Kōkako to the Tangihua’s.

Note : In a project to restore a Kōkako population in the Puketi forest 10 Kōkako were transferred from Mataraua Forest so at some point in the future we can do the same here.