Big news about tiny birds

Titipounamu outside a nesting box at Ross Creek. Photo credit: Oscar Thomas

We’re very excited to share that at least two nest boxes for rifleman/titipounamu in Ross Creek have been used this season.  
 
During our official monitor in October, staff found two boxes had nests and were being continually visited by adults with beaks full of insects. From inside the boxes there was a lot of hungry peeping! 
 
This is an exciting development after only one box was used last year. The two boxes occupied this season were both in the same vicinity as the box from last year. 
 
Ross Creek Reserve is a historically significant site for titipounamu, as it is where their breeding biology was first described in 1969 by Richard Gray. Re-introducing nest boxes for the birds was the brainchild of Oscar Thomas of Birds NZ and we were keen to support the idea to complement our trapping work. 
 
The rifleman is a forest specialist and our nation’s smallest bird, weighing the same as a $1 coin. Alongside the pīwauwau/rock wren, they are the only living lineage of an ancient group of birds known as the New Zealand wrens.  
 
Predation of adults, nestlings and eggs by introduced mammals such as cats, rats, mice, and stoats has contributed to their decline. As cavity nesters, they can be easily cornered and killed. The nest boxes are designed to prevent predators accessing the vulnerable chicks, increasing their chance of survival. 
 
Counting our manu 
Over the past few months, we have also been setting up our new five-minute bird count (5MBC) programme to help us track the impact of our predator control work on native bird species. Some of you may have noticed red triangles on your trap line, marking the site of the bird count station. Twelve sites across the city have been chosen based on vicinity to existing predator monitoring and trapping locations. Every 3 months we’ll conduct a bird survey at each of these sites using the five-minute bird count method. Over time, the bird count data will be compared against predator monitoring and trapping data at that location, which will help us determine the relative impact of our trapping operations toward increasing the number and diversity of native bird species. 
 
Keep an eye out for more news about this work in 2025!

City Sanctuary 5MBC locations and markers.