29 June, 2025

Bird saga ‘shows need for facility’

A three-woman rescue effort to save a protected native seabird (pictured) found lying on a Takapuna street highlights the urgent need for a bird rescue facility on the North Shore, says the Devonport woman who nursed it overnight.
Michelle Androu – who volunteered for 10 years with retired Rothesay Bay “Bird Lady” Sylvia Durrant – said people struggled to find help dealing with injured birds. A publicly funded bird hospital was needed on the North Shore, she said. The recent case underlined the issues.
The bird, a Buller’s shearwater, may have crash landed due to being disoriented by street lights.
Department of Conservation (DOC) officials who picked up the bird from Androu’s home the day after it was brought to her, said Buller’s shearwaters were a protected species that only bred in New Zealand. They are not endangered, but their population is in decline, a spokesperson said.
Takapuna resident Sharon Holloway found the bird lying in the middle of Blomfeld Spa, near its junction with Lake Rd, taking it to her home nearby. “It was just lying there and I thought I couldn’t just leave it.”
On her behalf, the administrator of the nearby Takapuna Methodist Church, Cathy Fraser, phoned DOC, who referred the duo to volunteer wildlife rangers, who could not be raised. They then phoned around some vets, until one in Belmont suggested she contact Androu. When Androu identified the bird from photographs as a shearwater, DOC suggested it be taken to a bird-rescue centre in Green Bay. Androu agreed to keep it safe overnight for DOC to collect, as by then it was out of hours for the rescue centre.
“We appreciate the care shown by all involved in this rescue,” a DOC spokesperson said. DOC’s advice is that in most cases people report injured birds rather than intervene in their care, unless they are in immediate danger. Androu said that only underlined the need for more accessible care and advice.
She said it was understandable that DOC focused its resources on helping endangered species, but with the amount of coastline and seabirds around the North Shore, having facilities locally would be a big help.
Androu, who learned a lot helping Durrant, said people sometimes phoned her for advice, often because they could not get through to authorities, but that she was not an expert or in a position to take in birds.
For people unable to get to Green Bay, which only takes in native birds, Androu says another option is to contact the 24-hour Animal Referral Centre vets at Schnapper Rock. She hoped authorities would one day fund a dedicated local centre, ideally in Takapuna or Milford. She also suggested DOC might run a workshop to build community knowledge.
Androu worried what would happen if there was an environmental disaster, such as an oil slick. And she is concerned that more common species fall through the cracks.
DOC agreed with Androu that more facilities would be helpful, in particular those prioritising native and protected species. It said its work focused on the most threatened species as well as wider habitat conservation to preserve whole populations and species.
The Hauaraki Gulf was considered by many to be the seabird capital of the world, DOC said. It had dozens of different species.

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