Not all chicks have fun in the sun

Rosemary Roberts | 9th February 2010

Whangarei Bird Recovery Centre's finances are evaporating fast - because the drought is killing kiwi chicks.

Centre director Robert Webb says he has never  had so many new kiwi chicks at the centre, or abandoned eggs brought in for safe hatching.

Each rescued chick costs about $60 in the first 24 hours, when they are re-hydrated and medicated, he says. Costs then run at about $20 a day for the rest of their stay, usually three weeks to a month. And now the chicks must stay longer.

"There's nothing out there for them to eat," says the director. "We would be sending them to their deaths if we put them back in the wild at the usual time."

Kiwi care costs are currently running at an unprecedented $150 a day because of the influx.

Medical treatment is usually necessary for any bird brought into the centre at the moment because many develop botulism from the bacteria around the edges of evaporated ponds. The disease paralyses the birds and eventually stops them breathing.

Kiwi chicks  making their first forays out of the nest are finding the ground is too hard for their beaks to dig for worms. "They get disorientated, end up out in the open and get fried in the sun," he says.

The intensive care "nursery" had five chicks yesterday. Two kiwi hatched at the centre are cuddled up together in one box, but newest arrival, three-week-old Puddles, won't be cuddling up to anyone because he had enough time in the wild to develop the instinct to fight a kiwi he is not familiar with.

The bird was found collapsed in a small puddle in a drain in Trounson Park in the Northern Wairoa.

Anyone interested in sponsoring a chick at the centre can phone (09) 438 1457 or email nativebirdrecovery@xtra.co.nz