Second translocation & nest watching

Twenty more kākāriki karaka were sent to the Brook and released on 2025-12-22. Birds in this release seemed more intent on nesting than the first release, a few of them quickly paired off and led us to their nests through radio tracking.

I began the task of nest watching. One reason for this was that on 2025-12-08 I had a fall in the sanctuary, and broke my neck! Avulsion fracture of the C5 and C6 cervical vertebrae. Fortunately no spinal cord damage, and was advised to let it heal naturally. No pain worthy of note either. However, I was also advised to not do any further damage while healing. Many thought it inadvisable to go bush-bashing while chasing birds and risk another fall, so I took on the task of sitting or lying down watching nests while the others went radio-tracking.

A nest watch is exactly what it sounds like. You watch a nest for as long as it takes to form an opinion on the stage of the nest. When a female is in the nest incubating, the male takes on the task of feeding her. He may visit every 40 minutes, or visit every 2.5 hours, perhaps even less frequently. So you sit or lie down, watch the nest hole, don't take your eyes off for more than a few seconds, binoculars on your chest, two-way radio at one side, bottle of water at the other, and notebook and pen and/or data-entry device (usually a mobile phone) ready for use. And of course snacks nearby, that are eaten while you watch the nest like a hawk.

When a male arrives to call his mate out for a feed, if you're lucky you hear him, or the entire visit may be in complete silence. A typical visit to a nest involving incubation may go something like:-

• Male arrives and calls out the female (noisily or silently, or something in between)
• Nothing happens. Male eventually departs after a few attempts to call her off (perhaps over a few minutes, or maybe much longer, half an hour or so). Or,

• Male arrives and calls out the female.
• Female comes out of the nest, for a feed, or for copulation (fertilising the next egg), and maybe they head off to the nearest stream or water source for a drink and/or bathing.
• Female heads back into the nest and the male departs. She'd normally be out of the nest from somewhere between about 3 and 15 minutes.

One mistake easily made here. Let's say you were watching a potential nest hole (that may or may not be in use). A male kākāriki karaka arrives behind you and calls out. You turn to see what may be happening and hopefully ID him from leg bands (using binoculars or a camera with telephoto). Suddenly another bird turns up (clearly his mate) and you have no idea where she came from. Did she come out of the nest hole you'd been watching for the last hour, or somewhere else? Had you been watching an active nest, or an empty hole? If you don't know, then you start again.... You wait another hour or two for the next visit, and this time pay attention to the nest hole! Ignore all other kākāriki in the area trying to distract you.

About this time I decided to take my camera on every visit to the sanctuary. I wanted kākāriki photos! I had a Nikon D5200 and 18-55mm kit lens but needed much more reach, so bought an entry-level 70-300mm.

On of my first photos of an active kākāriki karaka nest

The female above has just been called from her nest. Note she seems to have immediately noticed the change in her environment (my presence) even though I'm about 17m below and probably 15m horizontally from the base of the tree. Also note that no ID is yet possible, as her legs are not visible. This photo was taken at 300mm (or full-frame equivalent of 450mm). Clearly the more reach the lens has, the better. Full-frame 1200mm would have been appropriate here.

Courtship feeding

A crop of the above

Hopefully at some stage during a nest watch both birds will be ID'd. It's not often easy. Sometimes multiple visits over days or weeks result in failure to ID. It may be the nest is difficult to see from the ground, or it could be the behaviour of the birds (e.g., rapid entry or exit). In the above photo, both birds can be identified. On the left is the female, her leg bands are blue over white. On the right, the male is feeding his mate, his left leg shows green over pink (just barely visible through the foliage).

In the photo below, the male is feeding his mate, but all legs are hidden. This view is all too common!

Courtship feeding

Female flying straight into her nest hole without stopping (tail feathers visible mid-photograph)

Other times the bird(s) will perch at the nest entrance, or on a branch nearby, giving you all the time in the world to note their leg bands (below).

GP-S (Green Pink - Silver) at his nest entrance (just behind him)

Female entering her nest (radio transmitter antenna visible)

Supplementary feeders and trailcams

Kākāriki karaka released in the Sanctuary were raised in captivity. Part of their diet was sunflower seeds from auto-feeders. Use of these feeders continued in the soft-release aviaries for the two days before their release into the wild and freedom. Initially eight of these feeders were installed in the Sanctuary, four immediately around the aviaries, and four more somewhat further afield (within a few hundred metres). The reason was to ground the birds, to make them feel like their new home was a good place to be; that there was nothing to be gained by leaving the Sanctuary. Mostly it worked.

Sunflower seed drops up to four times daily, in controlled amounts. Standard drop times are 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm. The engine runs for a few seconds each time. Food normally runs out between seed drops, but sunflower seed is not the most nutritious food and the birds are expected to live mostly off food they find naturally in the forest (seeds, buds, fruit, and scale insects). Some birds made regular use of the feeders, others quickly lost interest and preferred natural, wild food.

Some of the feeders had motion-detection cameras. Visiting birds were recorded for monitoring and subsequent population analysis. Initial plan was DOC personnel would go through the images, and note (from leg bands) which birds were visiting.

A water bath was also installed (for drinking and bathing), it also had a trailcam.

Tracking the birds

Over the next week or two, Department of Conservation staff from the Kākāriki karaka recovery programme (based in the DOC Rangiora Office) tracked the birds with radio trackers and trained Brook Waimārama Sanctuary volunteers and staff in the use of such equipment.

The birds spread out far and wide, as far west as Falcon Spur, down the valley to the north, east to the Upper Valley, and uphill to the south and over the fence (outside the sanctuary).

Transmitters are necessarily small (a few grams) and the batteries don't last longer than about six weeks. Over that six weeks the hope is that the birds will pair up and develop nesting instincts, and the birds will then lead us to some of their nests.

A DOC staff member with radio tracking device

Radio tracking involves selecting the frequency of a bird on the receiver, swinging the directional antenna side-to-side and looking for a signal, noting the direction, then moving on and picking it up again (or a few more times) and noting the changed direction. Triangulation is then used to narrow down a likely location. One then heads into the middle of the location (subject to geographical and vegetation hazards such as creeks, cliffs, bush-lawyer and onga-onga). Hopefully the signal strength increases and one can identify a tree that the bird is in. Full success comes from spotting the bird and confirming its identity from leg bands. Best possible scenario is it will have paired off and be showing interest in a potential nest hole.

Radio tracking can be a time-consuming business. One person finding two birds in a day would be considered a good outcome. Intent is to find every bird twice per week.

Reintroduction of kākāriki karaka to the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary

On 2021-11-18, there were 20 kākāriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeets / Cyanoramphus malherbi) captured from their captive breeding facilities at Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust and Orana Wildlife Park in Canterbury, legs were banded with coloured bands (to aid in later field identification), transmitters attached to back feathers, put into wooden boxes, driven to Christchurch airport, flown to Nelson, transferred to a helicopter, flown to Third House where they received a formal welcome, carried down to waiting 4x4s, driven to the appropriately-named Kākāriki Hatch, carried by foot about 800m downhill to the waiting temporary-release aviaries, then released one-by-one into the aviaries. Ten males in one, and ten females in the other.

A bird being banded at Isaac prior to shipping to Nelson.

Photograph by Isaac

Two days later (2021-11-20) early in the morning the aviary doors were opened, one-by-one (or sometimes in pairs) the birds flew from the aviaries to their first taste of freedom. They were also likely the first kākāriki karaka to fly through the Nelson beech forest for 100 years or more.