In nearly every town in New Zealand, a quick trip to the local pond, lake, or beach, will give you an opportunity to see the Pied Stilt. Somehow amongst all of the problems facing New Zealand birds, this species has managed to thrive. However, although the Pied Stilt manages to thrive in today’s conditions, its cousin the Black Stilt (or Kaki) is not doing so well.

The world’s rarest wading bird, the Black Stilt, can generally only be found in a small area of Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand. It hasn’t always been this way, with breeding populations existing throughout the South Island (and the lower parts of the North Island) in the 1800s. As is the classic story with New Zealand birds though, the introduction of predators hit the Black Stilt much harder than it’s cousin. Slight differences in nesting behaviours, preferred habitat, and wariness has led the Black Stilt to near extinction, with only 23 birds surviving by the 1980s. The current population has been increased to 100-150 birds (as of 2013), although some consider this species extinct in the wild – the population is only surviving due to the work of the Department of Conservation, raising birds in captivity before releasing them into the wild.

So of course, I had the calling to go look for it. I threw a few mates together to keep me company, and we were off.

The first stop was in Twizel – the Kaki Lagoons were a fenced off area next to where the captive management of the juveniles takes place, as good a place to start as any. We decided to take a quick stop at a salmon farm just before the Kaki Lagoons to see what we could spy, and came out with three new birds. A pair of Great Crested Grebes were swimming around with their young, and a couple of Eurasian Coots were swimming around pulling algae off of the salmon nets, while an endangered Black-Fronted Tern flew overhead.

After this, we were off with optimism to the Kaki Lagoons. However, once we got there, we saw Paradise Ducks, Black Swans, Pukeko, Grey Ducks (my first time seeing a purebred), but no Black Stilts. We watched for a long time, but stil, there was nothing. To one side of me were the protected lagoons where I had hoped to see the beautiful birds, and to the other side of me was a large dam. I couldn’t help but blame the dam for the lack of stilts – the building of large dams around Otago was a factor in Black Stilt habitat reduction, and one of the reasons contributing to their status of critically endangered.

As we were driving away, all of a sudden, there was a success. We stopped the car and looked out across the waters – I could see nothing with my naked eye, but with a 600mm lens there was the unmistakeable outline of a Black Stilt.

We celebrated with a bag of chips, appreciated the rarity of the site we were seeing, before heading to location number three to try and get a closer view. On the word of a more experienced bird photographer from facebook, we headed to the shores of Lake Tekapo. Awkwardly parking on the side of the road and heading down to the shore, we were greeted with the amazing view of two Black Stilts wading in the shallows, on the search for little invertebrates in the sand.

It was a beautiful, serene scene. As the two stilts foraged, ignoring us, a White-faced heron, a Little Pied Shag, and a group of Mallard ducks were hanging out in the background. I don’t like to get too close to birds (especially critically endangered ones) in case I put undue stress on them, but it was different with these two. I’m used to the approximate distance that a Pied Stilt will begin to get wary, so I sat that far away from the Black Stilts. They were ignoring me, so I dared move a little bit closer. Still, I was ignored. I got close enough to the point that I decided to walk away in case I was to disturb them, while they still didn’t even acknowledge my presence.

This is probably one of the reasons they are doing so poorly. If they don’t react to a giant human coming towards them, how are they going to react when a hungry stoat spots them? This lack of wariness puts it at the mercy of any predator who happens to come along. And for these two Black Stilts, this is going to happen sooner rather than later. Next to where we parked the car, on the other side of the road to the lake, a mere two minute walk, we found a stoat. With a dead rabbit in his mouth, he was darting back and forth along a tree branch.

If there is one here, there is likely to be more. And if there are more, how long is it until they venture across the road, and come across a Black Stilt sleeping or foraging?

As we left, I thought about it. I managed to get photos of the bands on each of their legs. I’m going to come back one day, and see if they are still here. The bird lover in me hopes they will be, but the realist in me knows that as long as the stoat is there, the Black Stilt will never be safe.

We’re doing everything we can for these birds – and although things are improving, we need a predator free New Zealand if we ever want the Black Stilt to become a common sight again.

Read more about the Black Stilt – http://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/black-stilt

Read more about Predator Free New Zealand – http://predatorfreenz.org/about-us/what-we-do/

All photos, unless stated otherwise in the caption, are taken by Pete Naik