‘I didn’t understand their behaviour and I couldn’t work out where they were. Then I realised that was because they were nesting. I had to develop the skills to find and monitor the nests… In my first year, there were 17 chicks! I couldn’t believe it.’
The kōkako’s dark grey plumage has the same subtle gleam as rain-slicked slate. It’s a look that’s all business, topped with an arresting black eye mask and electric-blue wattles that look straight from a 1980s-era music video. Had it not been for dedicated conservation efforts across Aotearoa, this quirky bird might have disappeared from our forests forever. Instead, its deep, haunting call is echoing in places where the population was all but extinct.
“The first time you encounter one, it’s like ‘wow, the mythical kōkako’,” says long-time conservationist Laurence Gordon. “They call them the grey ghost because they’re hard to see up in the tall timber.”
Saving endangered native birds like the kōkako from extinction
