Birds of New Zealand

The mix includes species with unusual biology such as the kākāpō which is the world's only flightless, nocturnal parrot which also exhibits competitive display breeding using leks.

Several species were hunted to extinction by colonizing peoples, most notably the moa (Dinornithidae) and Haast's eagle (Hieraaetus moorei).

Mice, dogs, cats, stoats, weasels, pigs, goats, deer, hedgehogs, and Australian possums also put pressure upon native bird species.

[4][7] Terrestrial, wetland, and seabirds in New Zealand each measure to be one-third of the total number of species in the country.

[10] Huge conservation efforts are being made to save bird species, including the takahē, kākāpō, mohua, kōkako, whio, hihi and the kiwi.

One well documented conservation success story, due in a large part to the efforts of Don Merton, is the saving of the black robin on the Chatham Islands.

If New Zealand's currently threatened bird species go extinct, it is estimated it would take from 10 to 50 million years to return to today's biodiversity levels via natural evolutionary processes.

[5][4] Current conservation efforts encompass nonprofit and community groups and projects, including Save Our Iconic Kiwi, Takahē Recovery Programme, Kākāpō Recovery, the National Audubon Society, the Forest and Bird, among others supported by the Department of Conservation.

Efforts expand from raising funds to supplement existing and new projects, alongside exposing the public to the endemic fauna and encouraging individual acknowledgement of the crisis via tourism in conservation areas.

Mobilization involves taking the steps needed to build predator-free communities and establish collaborations across a given region and the nation as a whole.

Innovation involves developing new and transformative tools and techniques required and needed to remove predators from New Zealand's ecosystems.

As a keystone species, they have an enormous contribution to seed dispersal and population control of insects and grubs, helping regenerate endemic flora.

[21] As of 2020, The 11 projects that the organization funds through Jobs for Nature exceeded all their targets when it came to predator control in various regions of the North Island and kiwi rehabilitation in protected areas, including 127,432 hectares of mustelid-controlled habitat.