Auckland Zoo has had three Kiwi chicks hatch in the last week, marking a record year for their Kiwi bird program.

Besides some clever scientist cloning a new moa, what better Christmas present could Auckland Zoo get then kiwi chicks?

Nothing, and they've got them, three in the last week.

The new chicks cap off a record season for the zoo, which for the past three years has been harvesting kiwi eggs off Te Mata on the Coromandel peninsula.

TOM DILLANE/FAIRFAX NZ Bird keepers at Auckland Zoo wait to see what the kiwi birds' temperaments are like before naming them - although this is a mellow little guy.

Since the beginning of the year, 16 viable kiwi eggs have been harvested from Te Mata into the zoo's bird care facility.

From these eggs, nine chicks have been released into the zoo's wildlife reserve on Rotoroa Island, with the eventual aim of returning them back into the wild at Te Mata.

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TOM DILLANE/FAIRFAX NZ The kiwi chick incubates in its egg for at least 70 days before hatching.

Auckland Zoo bird keeper Claire Cameron says the harvesting of kiwi eggs off Te Mata is carefully coordinated with the kiwi's mating routine.

"We know how to find the eggs because the males have got transmitters on and so we home in on those transmitters and that's how we find the eggs," Cameron says.

"The male is the one who's doing the incubating, so he is on the nest when we take the eggs. The female lays two eggs, about 30 days apart."

TOM DILLANE/FAIRFAX NZ Auckland Zoo keeps the Kiwi chicks, who hatch at 36 degrees Celsius, in incubators to begin with, slowly lowering the temperature as they grow.

Once in the zoo's bird care facility, the kiwi eggs are housed in an incubating machine for at around 70 days, after which they will hatch.

"The kiwi egg relative to the size of the bird is the largest egg produced in the bird world," Cameron says.

"It takes up so much room in the female when she's producing it that it gets to the point she's even got no room to eat."

TOM DILLANE/FAIRFAX NZ Auckland Zoo bird keeper Claire Cameron weighs the Kiwi chicks every day after hatching.

Once hatched, the chicks are reared in the Auckland Zoo's bird-care facility for the first three weeks of their life, whereupon they are released onto the predator-free Rotoroa Island.

"We weigh the chicks every day so we can keep track of, at this point in time, weight loss because, when they hatch, they've internalised their egg yolk and that is what they are surviving on for the first few days of their life," Cameron says.

The three new kiwi chicks at Auckland Zoo are three, five and eight days old, as of December 20. A further four kiwi eggs are also incubating at Auckland Zoo.

TOM DILLANE/FAIRFAX NZ The Kiwi bird hatches fully feathered and has small whiskers besides its bill.

In the wild, 95 per cent of kiwi die before reaching breeding age, and the national Kiwi population is declining by 2 per cent a year.

This batch of kiwis is expected to return to the wild in Te Mata, after a stint on Rotoroa Island, around 2018.

Auckland Zoo is in close partnership with the Rotoroa Island Trust and Thames Coast Kiwi Care, who help to both harvest the kiwi eggs off Te Mata and run the wildlife refuge on Rotoroa Island.