The magenta petrel (Pterodroma magentae), or Chatham Island tāiko, is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, Pterodroma. Found exclusively on Chatham Island, New Zealand, it is one of the rarest birds in the world, believed to be extinct for over 100 years before its rediscovery in the 1970s. The undersides of the wings are brown. It has a black bill and pink legs. Adults weigh 400–580 g.

The bird nests in 1–3 m long burrows under dense forest. They form long-term monogamous pair bonds, raising one egg at a time, and both partners incubate the egg and feed the chick. It was another ten years before a tāiko burrow was discovered.

Conservation

Formerly widespread on Chatham Island, the tāiko is now confined to the forested Tuku Valley on the south-west of the island. The species is one of the rarest birds in the world.

thumb|left|alt=|19th century illustration

The land on which tāiko were first rediscovered was privately owned by Manuel and Evelyn Tuanui, who in 1983 donated 1283 hectares of land to the government to protect the species, becoming the Tuku Nature Reserve. In a 2004 report, about 80 percent of tāiko breeding burrows were in this reserve.

A conservation strategy is in place on the island to translocate chicks to an area where the main threats have been removed called the Sweetwater Secure Breeding Site. Studies in other petrel species such as the Manx shearwater, wandering albatross, and Cory's shearwater, have shown that birds return to the site in which they fledged. In 2007, eight chicks were successfully translocated and fledged from the breeding site. There has also been a predator-proof fence built around a small area of land since 2006, 60 tāiko have been relocated to this area.

References

Further reading

  • Imber, M.J., Tennyson, A.J.D, Taylor, G.A, and Johnston, P. (1998): A second intact specimen of the Chatham Island Taiko (Pterodroma magentae). Notornis 45(4): 247–254. PDF fulltext
  • BirdLife International species factsheet
  • Taikoat the New Zealand Department of Conservation
  • The Taiko Trust - supporting taiko conservation and research
  • Critically endangered seabird losing its pulling powerTerraNature, 23 April 2008