Not so much of a birdbrain!

What do you do if you weigh only two thirds of what you should and are weak and very hungry?

If you are a young female bittern at Auckland airport, you wander up near the MPI building and look as if you need help and before you know it, you are being transported to the New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine, at Auckland Zoo.

At only 600 gram this female was woefully malnourished, and her blood parameters showed that muscle breakdown, a result of starvation, was occurring. Rehydrated and onto a diet of salmon and sprats, this young matuku huurepo steadily gained weight and strength.

X rays, tests for lead or copper ingestion and repeated blood tests over the next several weeks were performed. A later white cell count increase was initially thought to be an infection but was then diagnosed as a stress response, thus avoiding the need for antibiotics. As she gained weight, live crickets, mealworms and other invertebrates were introduced into her diet as once released to the wild there would be no more salmon!

Once her physical condition improved with her weight now over 900 gram, her release to the wild was imminent and the potential to track her movements after a release into the wild was obvious. Emma Williams, DOC flew from Christchurch to attach a satellite tag. This device, powered by a solar battery, will enable her movements to be followed, perhaps for a year or more.

A previous matuku released to the Poutu peninsula in 2023 again after intensive care at the Centre for Conservation Medicine, was tracked for a year as it wandered in close proximity to her release site.