The New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust

Welcome to the home page for New Zealand's rarest and most critically threatened bird, the New Zealand fairy tern.  Known to Maori as Tara-iti, most New Zealanders will never get to see a New Zealand fairy tern, but those who do rapidly fall in love with these gutsy little birds who will swoop and poop on you if you get too close to their young or their nests.

Click to watch this clip from Greenstone's ' The Zoo' series.

Encouraged by the increase in birds from the low of about 10 in 1983 to about 40 in 2008, a group of individuals who are lucky enough to live near the remaining four breeding sites got together with concerned ornithologists and formed the New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust (NZFTCT).

Protection  of NZFT began in 1984 after the Wildlife Service had accounted for about 10 individuals that included only three or four breeding pairs. Management has continued under the Department of Conservation (DOC) and intensified since 1991, lowering the birds' risk of extinction within 50 years, but not eliminating it. (Ferreira et al 2005)

These birds need your help! Please join us.

You can help save this bird by joining our trust, becoming an NZ fairy tern volunteer with DOC and letting others know you care about these birds.

Facts about the New Zealand fairy tern

• NZFT is the smallest tern that breeds in NZ with adults measuring around 250mm in length and weighing a mere 70 grams.
• The average lifespan of NZFT is less than 10 years, however two individual birds are known to have survived into their 19th year.
• Their nests, found on only four North Auckland beaches, are scrapes in shell-covered sand, usually above the spring high tide mark.

Threats to NZFT survival

• One of the main threats are predators such as rats, dogs, cats, hedgehogs and mustelids who prey upon eggs, chicks and adult birds. Read more

About the New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust (NZFTCT)

• Formed in June 2008 to help the New Zealand fairy tern survive and prosper in their habitats, for the benefit of present and future generations of New Zealanders and to preserve part of New Zealand's biodiversity.
• The Trust complements DOC's efforts to save the NZFT.

Join us

The possibility of this bird becoming extinct in the next 50 years is high without your help.

Become a member
Membership entitles you to:

• Receive regular Trust bulletins and updates
• Participate in advocacy for the terns
• Join in with the volunteer groups who work closely with DOC during the breeding season

For further Trust info

and to join us:

Download our membership form (49kb PDF)

For further NZFT reading - NZFT (Sterna nereis davisae) Recovery Plan, 2005-15. Katrina Hansen - Threatened Species Recovery Plan 57.
Download this PDF from doc.govt.nz (260kb PDF)

Our bird!

NZFT in flight at Mangawhai.

Photo/Sioux Plowman

A Pakiri NZFT with 3 day old chicks.

Photo/ Tien-Yuan Chen.

New Zealand fairy tern eggs rescued by DoC from threatened wild nests are incubated at Auckland Zoo until a safe recipient nest on any of the four breeding sites becomes available.
Photo/ Michelle Whybrow (Akl Zoo)

A 21 day-old chick was stood on and crushed when thoughtless people ignored signs and entered this fenced area. The chick had been colour banded but was not fully able to fly so  would have 'frozen in situ'  when threatened.

Photo/ John Winters