{"id":646833,"date":"2025-12-21T19:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/646833\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T19:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:20:15","slug":"miracle-of-zealandia-chick-is-born-to-rare-takahe-pair-thought-to-be-infertile-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/646833\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Miracle\u2019 of Zealandia: chick is born to rare takah\u0113 pair thought to be infertile | Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of rare native New Zealand<\/a> takah\u0113 birds who were believed infertile have stunned staff at the world\u2019s largest urban eco-sanctuary, after hatching a \u201cmiracle\u201d chick.<\/p>\n

The roughly seven-week old chick was discovered inside Zealandia, a fully fenced eco-sanctuary 10 minutes from Wellington\u2019s city centre, in November, but its arrival has been a closely guarded secret to ensure its safety.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has been given first access to the photographs and footage of the chick, which sports a shock of fuzzy black down, comically large white legs and claws, and a black beak with a tiny white tip.<\/p>\n

Takah\u0113 are a unique and unusual bird. They are the world\u2019s largest living rail \u2013 a family of small to medium sized ground-dwelling birds with short wings, large feet and long toes. They breed just once a year. While they resemble Australasian swamp hens, or p\u016bkeko in New Zealand<\/a>, they are in fact their chunkier, flightless, mountain-dwelling cousin.<\/p>\n

The birds once roamed the South Island, but were thought extinct at the turn of the 20th century, until they were rediscovered in 1948. Since then they have been part of New Zealand\u2019s longest running endangered species programme, which has slowly rebuilt their population to 500<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The chick\u2019s father Bendigo and mother Waitaa arrived at the sanctuary two years ago as a non-breeding pair. After an unsuccessful nesting attempt in 2024, staff did not expect the couple to breed.<\/p>\n

But in October, Waitaa disappeared \u2013 a clue she may be nesting. Some weeks later staff heard cheeping in a dense patch of bush and set up a trail camera. Its footage confirmed the chick\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was gobsmacked,\u201d Jo Ledington, Zealandia\u2019s conservation and restoration manager, told the Guardian. \u201cIt\u2019s a miracle, we just weren\u2019t expecting it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parents were \u201ctextbook model parents\u201d, and were doting on their new chick, whose sex is not yet known. Meanwhile, the chick had entered its \u201cdinosaur phase\u201d, Ledington said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts legs are really quite long and chunky and its beak is getting that more adult shape, which on its small downy body looks a bit dinosaur-ish.\u201d<\/p>\n

At three months old the chick will start to look more like an adult takah\u0113, which stand at roughly 50cm tall. The adults are rotund, with red legs and a large beak, and are covered in green and blue feathers. When viewed from the front, takah\u0113 look like a model of planet Earth on stilts.<\/p>\n

The chick\u2019s father Bendigo and mother Waitaa arrived at the sanctuary two years ago as a non-breeding pair. After an unsuccessful nesting attempt in 2024, staff did not expect the couple to breed. Photograph: Linton Miller<\/p>\n

The chick\u2019s arrival is significant for the threatened takah\u0113 population<\/a>. Like many New Zealand birds, takah\u0113 evolved without land mammals, and are vulnerable to attacks from introduced predators.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny chick that we can add to that population is just incredibly valuable,\u201d Ledington said.<\/p>\n

Native species thrive within Zealandia\u2019s fences and the sanctuary is credited with creating a bird-life boom <\/a>in Wellington. The sanctuary does not typically house breeding takah\u0113 pairs because it does not have grassland habitat the birds like to nest in.<\/p>\n

Bendigo, Waitaa and their chick are Zealandia\u2019s only takah\u0113 residents but they are not the only takah\u0113 to surprise staff with a chick. A former pair were thought to be past breeding age when staff discovered they too had hatched a surprise chick in 2018.<\/p>\n

When asked if there was something in the sanctuary\u2019s water, Ledington laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cZealandia is a pretty special place, so yes, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of rare native New Zealand takah\u0113 birds who were believed infertile have stunned staff at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-646833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115759180974560904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}