'Extinct' South Island kokako could still be alive

A claimed sighting of the South Island kokako, a bird declared extinct six years ago, has fuelled hopes the species could still be alive.

Advocacy group Forest and Bird said a sighting of the bird by two people near Reefton in 2007 had recently been accepted by the Ornithological Society's Records Appraisal Committee, which monitors the status of rare and endangered birds.

Before the Reefton sighting, the last accepted sighting of a South Island kokako was in 1967.

Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand says the kokako's haunting, evocative call is unlike any other bird's.

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