The timing of last night's fire on Mauao is the only positive in an event which has setback the Mauao Wildlife Trust's mountain recovery programme.

'If it had been a month ago it would have been devastating,” says trust spokesperson Julia Graham.

Aerial photos show the extent of the fire on Mauao. Photos and video: Tracy Hardy.

'There would have been Grey faced chicks everywhere because they like those cliff bush areas.

'This time of year there's always going to be young birds. Luckily most of the young petrels have fledged by this time of year, there's maybe a few left.”

Usually on a Wednesday night during December and January, Paul Cuming from the Mauao Wildlife Trust leads a team near the burned out area, banding the fledgling grey faced petrels that are emerging from their burrows and quite helpless on the forest floor.

As the petrel chicks emerge from their burrows their internal GPS "synchs" with the stars above so that they will for the rest of their lives know Mauao is their point of origin.

After a few days they take off, flying out to sea for up to 5-7 years. Once they reach maturity they return, landing within a metre of the nest where they hatched.

Grey faced petrels can live up to 40 years.

'The extent of the fire, where it was localised, hopefully it wasn't a really high nesting area,” says Julia.

'But still once again it's up near where the pacific gecko lives, near the rock area, so it's pretty tragic, full stop.

'Any deforestation on Mauao is a tragedy because it leads to more erosion and a lot more issues.”

The vegetation on Mauao is still recovering from a previous fire in 2003.

'I remember watching it,” says Julia.

'Also where it was, I'm hoping it missed most of the new plantings. Council put in a lot of work replanting above the sheep paddock.”

She's hoping the timing of the fire means the tui chicks have had time to fledge, as well as the penguin chicks. There are about 800 penguins living on Mauao, many of them nesting in burrows quite high up the side of the mountain.