The Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust is expecting this month to see the first hatching of kokako chicks since the early 1980s in the Otanewainuku forest.

Moana Hodge releasing a kokako in September last year. Photo by Moana Bianchin.

'Two pairs have nested,” says Dave Wills from Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust.

'One pair has nested in the top of a tree fern and the second pair has made their nest in a tawa tree under thick cover.”

He has monitored the nests with Dave Edwards, chairman of the trust, and a small team of dedicated volunteers since their release there in September.

Each bird was fitted with a transmitter on release and this makes it easier to follow them and find the nests in a remote corner of the forest.

Ten kokako were released and all but one are still being tracked, one or two moving along the forested ridge towards Otawa forest.

A successful nest will be a huge boost to the work of the Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust, which has spent eight years working to control predators and pests in the 1200 hectares of protected native forest at the top of No.2 Road.

The land is publicly owned, and the trust works in partnership with the Department of Conservation to keep pest numbers down and improve the habitat.

'The process of locating, capturing and transferring the kokako last year was a major event in the trust's programme,” says Dave.

'We had a terrific response with 54 volunteers willing to stay out in the forests of Rotoehu and Kaharoa, working long hours in capture teams.

'The trust had great support from iwi for both capture sites and once again wonderful support from tangata whenua to welcome the birds back to Otanewainuku.

'The song of the kokako is remarkable; it is one of the world's great songbirds, and it was a real pleasure to hear the birds singing and duetting in Otanewainuku as they established territories.”

A new technique of sound anchoring was used to keep the kokako within close range of their release sites as they are a social species and need to hear other birds singing their familiar dialect to settle in a new site.

Dave says this worked extremely well with only a few excursions ‘out of zone', but the birds have stayed around.

He says visitors to the forest have reported hearing the haunting call of the kokako.