This bird is as threatened as the black robin, but few New Zealanders know it

The orange-fronted parakeet is classified as nationally critical. Between 150 and 200 breeding adults remain.

They're as threatened as the black robin, and more at risk of extinction than any kiwi – but very few people know what the orange-fronted parakeet is. GED CANN looks at this forgotten species.

Once upon a time they were so numerous their feathers would be used to stuff pillows, and residents would shoot them off the roof of Canterbury Museum. Now there are only 150-200 adult orange-fronted parakeet left.

The beech masts which once fuelled this boom-and-bust species now encourage the rats and stoats that prey on them, which has led to DOC's prediction that the population will decline by up to 70 per cent within 10 years, or three generations, whichever is longest.

Continued

Bird's Rescue from Extinction Nearly Backfired

By Douglas Main, LiveScience Contributor | January 13, 2014 03:54pm 

In the 1980s, the black robin was on the brink of extinction, having been reduced to just a single breeding pair by predation from cats and rats introduced to the islands where they live, southeast of New Zealand. To save the species, scientists encouraged the pair and their offspring to mate as much as possible, and even lent a hand to move eggs laid on the edges of nests, where they wouldn't hatch, into the middle of the nest, where they would.

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