Mature tieke showing the saddle from where its name originates. Photo: Matt Winter

North Island saddleback/tīeke

January 2020

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January 2020

You can find this bird in several predator-free mainland island sanctuaries.

Like many endemic bird species, the saddleback (tieke) was an abundant and reasonably common bird when Europeans arrived in New Zealand. But with the subsequent introduction of rats, mice and mustelids, their numbers rapidly declined. By the early 1900s, tieke were confined to one population on Hen Island off the north-east coast of the North […]
January 2020

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January 2020

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