Stitchbird
Encyclopedia
The Stitchbird or Hihi (Notiomystis cincta) is a rare honeyeater
-like bird
endemic
to the North Island
and adjacent offshore islands of New Zealand
. It became extirpated
everywhere except Little Barrier Island but has been reintroduced to three other island sanctuaries and two locations on the North Island mainland. Its evolutionary relationships have long puzzled ornithologists, but it is now classed as the only member of its own family
, the Notiomystidae.
-like bird. Males have a dark velvety cap and short white ear-tufts, which can be raised somewhat away from the head. A yellow band across the chest separates the black head from the rest of the body, which is grey. Females and juveniles are duller than males, lacking the black head and yellow chest band. The bill is rather thin and somewhat curved, and the tongue is long with a brush at the end for collecting nectar. Thin whiskers project out and slightly forward from the base of the bill.
Stitchbirds are very active and call frequently. Their most common call, a tzit tzit sound, is believed to be the source of their common name, as Buller
noted that it "has a fanciful resemblance to the word stitch". They also have a high-pitched whistle and an alarm call which is a nasal pek like a bellbird
. Males give a piercing three-note whistle (often heard in spring) and a variety of other calls not given by the female.
from the Tui
and New Zealand Bellbird
, and will feed from lower-quality food sources when these species are present. The Stitchbird rarely lands on the ground and seldom visits flowers on the large canopy trees favoured by the tui and bellbird (this may simply be because of the competition from the more aggressive, larger birds).
Their main food is nectar, but the Stitchbird's diet covers over twenty species of native flowers and thirty species of fruit and many species of introduced plants. Important natural nectar sources are haekaro, matata, puriri
, rata
and toropapa
. Preferred fruits include Coprosma
species, five finger, pate
, tree fuchsia
, and raukawa.
The Stitchbird also supplements its diet with small insects.
in holes high up in old trees. They are the only bird species that mates face to face, in addition to the more conventional copulation style for birds where the male mounts the female's back.
in the 1880s. The exact cause of the decline is unknown, but is thought to be pressure from introduced species
, especially Black Rat
s, and introduced avian diseases. Only a small population on Little Barrier Island survived. Starting in the 1980s the New Zealand Wildlife Service (now Department of Conservation) translocated numbers of individuals from Hauturu to other island sanctuaries to create separate populations. These islands were part of New Zealand's network of offshore reserves which have been cleared of introduced species
and which protect other rare species including the Kakapo
and Takahe
.
Currently the world population is estimated to be between 500 and 1000 adult birds, surviving on Hauturu (Little Barrier Island), Kapiti Island
, Tiritiri Matangi Island
, Mokoia Island
in Lake Rotorua
, the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
and the Waitakere Ranges
. The Tiritiri Matangi population is growing slowly but more than half the chicks that hatch there die of starvation due to the lack of mature forest, most of the island having been revegetated only since 1984–1994. Only the Little Barrier Island population is thought to be stable as of 2007. This species is classified as Vulnerable (D1+D2) by the IUCN. This classification means that there are less than 1000 mature birds, and that the species was found in five locations only. Should the number of self-supporting populations increase and the species flourish, it would likely be downgraded to Conservation Dependent.
and in October that year, three Stitchbird chicks hatched there, the first time for more than 120 years that a Stitchbird chick had been born on mainland New Zealand. The hatchings were described as a significant conservation milestone by sanctuary staff who were hoping further chicks would be born there .
In (local) autumn 2007, 59 adult birds from the Tiritiri Matangi population were released in Cascade Kauri Park, in the Waitakere Ranges
near Auckland
and by the end of the year the first chicks had fledged there.
. In 2007 a new passerine family was erected to contain the Stitchbird, the Notiomystidae.
Honeyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea...
-like bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
endemic
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
to the North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
and adjacent offshore islands of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It became extirpated
Local extinction
Local extinction, also known as extirpation, is the condition of a species which ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere...
everywhere except Little Barrier Island but has been reintroduced to three other island sanctuaries and two locations on the North Island mainland. Its evolutionary relationships have long puzzled ornithologists, but it is now classed as the only member of its own family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
, the Notiomystidae.
Description
The Stitchbird is a small honeyeaterHoneyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea...
-like bird. Males have a dark velvety cap and short white ear-tufts, which can be raised somewhat away from the head. A yellow band across the chest separates the black head from the rest of the body, which is grey. Females and juveniles are duller than males, lacking the black head and yellow chest band. The bill is rather thin and somewhat curved, and the tongue is long with a brush at the end for collecting nectar. Thin whiskers project out and slightly forward from the base of the bill.
Stitchbirds are very active and call frequently. Their most common call, a tzit tzit sound, is believed to be the source of their common name, as Buller
Walter Buller
Walter Lawry Buller KCMG was a New Zealand lawyer, naturalist and ornithologist.Buller was the author of A History of the Birds of New Zealand , with illustrations by John Gerrard Keulemans. In 1882 he produced the Manual of the Birds of New Zealand as a cheaper, popular alternative...
noted that it "has a fanciful resemblance to the word stitch". They also have a high-pitched whistle and an alarm call which is a nasal pek like a bellbird
New Zealand Bellbird
The New Zealand Bellbird , also known by its Māori names Korimako or Makomako, is a passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It has greenish colouration and is the only living member of the genus Anthornis. The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of bird song...
. Males give a piercing three-note whistle (often heard in spring) and a variety of other calls not given by the female.
Food and feeding
Research has suggested that they face interspecific competitionInterspecific competition
Interspecific competition, in ecology, is a form of competition in which individuals of different species compete for the same resource in an ecosystem...
from the Tui
Tui (bird)
The tui is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand. It is one of the largest members of the diverse honeyeater family....
and New Zealand Bellbird
New Zealand Bellbird
The New Zealand Bellbird , also known by its Māori names Korimako or Makomako, is a passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It has greenish colouration and is the only living member of the genus Anthornis. The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of bird song...
, and will feed from lower-quality food sources when these species are present. The Stitchbird rarely lands on the ground and seldom visits flowers on the large canopy trees favoured by the tui and bellbird (this may simply be because of the competition from the more aggressive, larger birds).
Their main food is nectar, but the Stitchbird's diet covers over twenty species of native flowers and thirty species of fruit and many species of introduced plants. Important natural nectar sources are haekaro, matata, puriri
Puriri
Puriri is an evergreen tree endemic to New Zealand. -History:...
, rata
Metrosideros robusta
Northern rātā , is a huge forest tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to 25 m or taller, and usually begins its life as a hemiepiphyte high in the branches of a mature forest tree; over centuries the young tree sends descending and girdling roots down and around the trunk of its host,...
and toropapa
Alseuosmia macrophylla
Alseuosmia macrophylla is a plant species in the family Alseuosmiaceae. This is a small evergreen shrub. An example occurrence of A. macrophylla is in the New Zealand North Island habitat of the Hamilton Ecological District, where Blechnum discolor and Blechnum filiforme are understory elements...
. Preferred fruits include Coprosma
Coprosma
Coprosma is a genus of 108 species that are found in New Zealand , Hawaii , Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands of the Pacific Ocean to Australia and the Juan Fernández Is. Many species are small shrubs with tiny evergreen leaves, but a few are small trees and have much larger leaves...
species, five finger, pate
Schefflera digitata
Schefflera digitata, Patē or Seven-finger, is a tree endemic to New Zealand belonging to the family Araliaceae. The Māori name is Patē or Patatē. It occurs in lowland to lower montane forests from sea level to 1200 m in the North Island, South Island, and Stewart Island, covering a latitudinal...
, tree fuchsia
Fuchsia excorticata
Fuchsia excorticata, the New Zealand Fuchsia also known as Kotukutuku, is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Onagraceae. It is found commonly throughout New Zealand and as far south as the Auckland Islands. It grows from sea level up to about 1,000 m, particularly alongside creeks...
, and raukawa.
The Stitchbird also supplements its diet with small insects.
Breeding
The Stitchbird nestsBird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
in holes high up in old trees. They are the only bird species that mates face to face, in addition to the more conventional copulation style for birds where the male mounts the female's back.
Range and conservation
The Stitchbird was relatively common early in the European colonisation of New Zealand, and began to decline relatively quickly afterwards, being extinct on the mainland and many offshore islands by 1885. The last sighting on the mainland was in the Tararua RangeTararua Range
The Tararua Range is one of several mountain ranges in the North Island of New Zealand which form a ridge running parallel with the east coast of the island between East Cape and Wellington....
in the 1880s. The exact cause of the decline is unknown, but is thought to be pressure from introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
, especially Black Rat
Black Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
s, and introduced avian diseases. Only a small population on Little Barrier Island survived. Starting in the 1980s the New Zealand Wildlife Service (now Department of Conservation) translocated numbers of individuals from Hauturu to other island sanctuaries to create separate populations. These islands were part of New Zealand's network of offshore reserves which have been cleared of introduced species
Island restoration
The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic species, as well as important breeding grounds for seabirds and some...
and which protect other rare species including the Kakapo
Kakapo
The Kakapo , Strigops habroptila , also called owl parrot, is a species of large, flightless nocturnal parrot endemic to New Zealand...
and Takahe
Takahe
The Takahē or South Island Takahē, Porphyrio hochstetteri is a flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand and belonging to the rail family. It was thought to be extinct after the last four known specimens were taken in 1898...
.
Currently the world population is estimated to be between 500 and 1000 adult birds, surviving on Hauturu (Little Barrier Island), Kapiti Island
Kapiti Island
-External links:* , Department of Conservation* * , Nature Coast Enterprise *...
, Tiritiri Matangi Island
Tiritiri Matangi Island
Tiritiri Matangi Island lies in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, east of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula in the North Island and north east of Auckland. The island is an open nature reserve managed under the supervision of the Department of Conservation and is noted for its bird life, including kiwi...
, Mokoia Island
Mokoia Island
Mokoia Island is located in Lake Rotorua in New Zealand. It has an area of 1.35 square kilometres. The island is a rhyolite lava dome, rising to 180 metres above the lake surface. It erupted after the Rotorua caldera was formed, tapping a different magma source...
in Lake Rotorua
Lake Rotorua
Lake Rotorua is the second largest lake in the North Island of New Zealand by surface area, and covers 79.8km2. With a mean depth of only 10 metres it is considerably smaller than nearby Lake Tarawera in terms of volume of water. It is located in the Bay of Plenty region...
, the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
Zealandia, formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected natural area in Wellington, New Zealand, where the biodiversity of 225 ha of forest is being restored...
and the Waitakere Ranges
Waitakere Ranges
The Waitakere Ranges are a chain of hills in the Auckland metropolitan area, generally running approximately 25 km from north to south, 25 km west of central Auckland, New Zealand. The maximum elevation within the ranges is 474 m...
. The Tiritiri Matangi population is growing slowly but more than half the chicks that hatch there die of starvation due to the lack of mature forest, most of the island having been revegetated only since 1984–1994. Only the Little Barrier Island population is thought to be stable as of 2007. This species is classified as Vulnerable (D1+D2) by the IUCN. This classification means that there are less than 1000 mature birds, and that the species was found in five locations only. Should the number of self-supporting populations increase and the species flourish, it would likely be downgraded to Conservation Dependent.
Reintroduction to mainland
In 2005, 60 Stitchbirds were released in the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary near WellingtonWellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
and in October that year, three Stitchbird chicks hatched there, the first time for more than 120 years that a Stitchbird chick had been born on mainland New Zealand. The hatchings were described as a significant conservation milestone by sanctuary staff who were hoping further chicks would be born there .
In (local) autumn 2007, 59 adult birds from the Tiritiri Matangi population were released in Cascade Kauri Park, in the Waitakere Ranges
Waitakere Ranges
The Waitakere Ranges are a chain of hills in the Auckland metropolitan area, generally running approximately 25 km from north to south, 25 km west of central Auckland, New Zealand. The maximum elevation within the ranges is 474 m...
near Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
and by the end of the year the first chicks had fledged there.
Taxonomy
The Stitchbird was originally described as a member of the primarily Australian and New Guinean honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It has remained classified as such until recently. Genetic analysis shows that it is not closely related to the honeyeaters and their allies and that its closest living relatives are within the endemic New Zealand CallaeidaeCallaeidae
The small bird family Callaeidae is endemic to New Zealand. It contains three monotypic genera; of the three species in the family, only two survive and both of them, the Kokako and the Saddleback, are endangered species, threatened primarily by the predations of introduced mammalian species such...
. In 2007 a new passerine family was erected to contain the Stitchbird, the Notiomystidae.
External links
- Karori Wildlife SanctuaryKarori Wildlife SanctuaryZealandia, formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected natural area in Wellington, New Zealand, where the biodiversity of 225 ha of forest is being restored...
: Stitchbird Facts - Birdlife InternationalBirdLife InternationalBirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
: Species factsheet - Hihi conservation