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Lost from Sea: Light-Impacted seabird rehabilitation at BirdCare Aotearoa

  • Seabirds continue!

      17 June 2025
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    Kia ora wonderful whānau,

    Arohanui for your generous support through the Autumn seabirds season- our clinical recovery efforts would not be possible without you!

    We responded to 137 light-impacted petrels and shearwaters this Autumn. We suspect these are casualties of night light pollution because rescuers found them grounded (unable to fly) among city/urban infrastructure, appeared disoriented, and many showed signs of collisions.

    While we thought seabirds season would be over, we are still recovering the final patients for the season- they should be embarking on their Trans-Pacific migrations asap.

    Last night we released the [hopefully] final Tāiko Black Petrel for the season. These species are endangered, so the 10 rescues we cared for were critical for the overall population! Thank you for enabling this!

    We admitted some uncommon seabird species in these last few weeks including: Tāiko, Blue Petrel, Pāngurunguru Northern Giant Petrel, Kāruhiruhi Pied Shag (fish-hook injuries), Pycroft's Petrels, Antarctic Fulmar, and Rako Buller's Shearwaters.

    Thank you so much for supporting this clinical recovery programme.

    Nga manaakitanga,

    -BirdCare team <3

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  • Taiko Black Petrels

      27 May 2025
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    Arohanui whanau for the continued generous support! It means so much to our hospital operations! ...Apologies for the silence on updates- Autumn has been an absolutely hectic season for us!

    We are currently responding to our second Taiko Black Petrel (endangered) for the season. These manutai (seabirds) are really in the best hands <3

    We will be sharing our work rehabilitating these and other taonga birdlife during Auckland Council's Manukau Harbour Symposium this weekend. Get your tickets today!

    https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/events/2025/05/manukau-harbour-symposium/

    Finally, if you missed it, our recovery of seabirds recently featured on RNZ!

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/560115/wildlife-hospital-says-public-light-displays-are-contributing-to-native-seabird-groundings

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  • Invitation: Shedding light on Seabird Fallout 1 May 2025 evening hui

      28 April 2025
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    Kia ora whanau,

    Thank you to all amazing supporters who enable us to continue this critical seabird rehabilitation programme. A special thank you also to everyone rescuing the light-impacted petrels, shearwaters and prions, and bringing them to our hospital. This Autumn, we have so far responded to 115 of these taonga- with our 95th and 96th Cookies admitted from Devonport yesterday.

    If you are keen to learn more about this issue, please join our upcoming hui, hosted at the Pathfinder Boardroom (ethical investors).

    https://events.humanitix.com/birdcare-aotearoa-shedding-light-on-seabird-fallout

    *Photograph of this rehabilitated Tītī Cook's petrel being returned to the moana, by Eva Cadario.

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  • Sunset releases

      18 April 2025
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    Last week was a very busy week at the hospital- culminating in three batches of Cookies (Cook's Petrels) passing their final swim tests and being returned to the moana.

    31 individuals were released before the storm, but those evenings were pretty still. These birds need windy conditions to take flight, which is why we gently raise these birds to encourage take off.

    Our friend, acclaimed wildlife photographer Simon Runting joined us for a few releases, and catpured this stunning moment!

    Titi, Cook's Petrels are nocturnal navigators. So sunset release is essential for their welfare... while also being very poetic!

    Thank you to everyone who is supporting this mahi <3

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  • First Cookies, being released back to the Moana!

      7 April 2025

    What a beautiful moment, releasing our first rehabilitated Tītī Cook's Petrels back to the sea!

    Two Cookies were released last week, and we are looking forward to many more in the next few weeks/months.

    Thank you to everyone who has been part of their dedicated recovery- we simply could not do this work without your support!

    Haere Ra tītī!

    And thank you to our incredible e hoa who shared this whakatauki (proverb), relevant not just to the birds- but all environmental and social champions right now: Kia manawa tītī: Be resilient like the tītī (Or more literally, have the heart of a tītī, who takes on this huge migratory journey).

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  • Cookie Time!

      31 March 2025
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    We discussed our concerns of the dazzling effects of night light pollution on seabirds with Kathryn Ryan on RNZ Nine to Noon last Friday!

    Later that afternoon, we admitted two more Cook's petrels | Tītī from the CBD and Kohimarama. Yesterday, we received two more Cookies- rescued from Glen Eden. Then, this morning DOC Auckland advised us to expect three more rescues

    ... Oh right, and just as we wrote this post, a bird hero brought in our ninth Cookie from Mairangi Bay.

    Ka pai whanau for your attention to these seabirds, grounded on land!

    These are high-care patients at our hospital... Nga mihi nui to all the incredible donors, who support their clinical recovery!

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  • Just received our first Juvenile Cookie for the season

      26 March 2025
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    Tītī Cook's petrels are little seabirds, who often fall victim to Auckland city's bright night lights! We just received our first juvenile "Cookie" of the season this afternoon- thank you to the amazing rescuer who founded the grounded bird in a Downtown Auckland CBD car park. A phone call notified us to expect a second Cookie too! Indeed, Autumn is when these young fledglings leave their burrows. We will keep you updated on their recovery progress on our social media!

    Thank you to all wonderful GiveALittle donations who are helping us with the recovery of this little cutie, and other light-pollution casualties <3

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  • BirdCare Aotearoa's specialist Seabird recovery featured on TV!

      18 March 2025
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    Wow! Our seabird recovery efforts recently featured on TV! Thank you to LottoNZ who support us not only with local grants, but also providing screentime to raise awareness of this critical mahi!

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  • Seabird identification

      18 March 2025
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    Step one of each rescue's clinical examination is to identify the species in care.

    It is essential that we provide species-specific care to each patient, as seabirds have really diverse needs. Thank you to those of you donating fish, while others help us to buy squid!

    Photocredit to amazing Photojournalist and Volunteer Eva Cadario for this image (Copyright Eva Cadario)

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