Hihi Conservation Charitable Trust

The hihi is a threatened endemic forest bird, unique to New Zealand and unique in the world as the sole representative of its own bird family. Hihi were once common across the north island but they suffered catastrophic declines resulting in their extinction from everywhere except one small offshore island (Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island) by the end of the 19th century. Our work to recover the hihi began in 1980 and primarily focusses on establishing new populations through reintroduction. This was initially unsuccessful but in the early 1990’s we added intensive management support of these reintroduced populations and this has resulted in success. We now support 7 reintroduced populations spread from Wellington to Auckland and with active plans to grow these further. The hihi is a special bird in New Zealand as one of our most genetically distinctive, one of our most brightly coloured, and one of our most challenging to recover. Our trust has been established to ensure we recover hihi, and to promote awareness of it amongst New Zealanders.