Download

On 5 years between 1969 and 2006, counts were made of birds seen and heard along a 2.3 km transect through a central suburb of Wellington City. A total of 14,461 birds of 26 species were encountered, including 10 native and 16 introduced species. Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis), sacred kingfisher (Halcyon sancta) dunnock (Prunella modularis) and rock dove (Columba livia) numbers remained similar over the 5 counts. By contrast, counts of tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae), fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa) and grey warbler (Gerygone igata) rose between 1988-89 and 2005-06. New Zealand pigeons (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) and bellbirds (Anthornis melanura) were 1st detected in 2005. The number of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), song thrush (Turdus philomelos), chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), blackbird (Turdus merula), goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) and greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) increased more than 3-fold between the earliest and latest counts. Increases in the numbers of most native and introduced species may have resulted from a possum control programme that began throughout the Wellington district in the 1990s and to the establishment of the nearby Karori Wildlife Sanctuary (‘Zealandia’). Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and black-backed gull (Larus dominicanus) counts fell after 1971 as did the number of Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) between 1989 and 2005. Between 1969-71 and 1981-2, house sparrow (Passer domesticus) counts fell 37%, the figure remaining low until 2006. The coincidence of this decline in house sparrows with similar declines in the northern hemisphere is discussed.