A group of New Zealand's rarest songbirds, the Mohua (yellowhead), has been shifted to a safe island in Fiordland from the Catlins.
One of the songbirds is released on Resolution Island. Photo: CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT
Twenty-two of the small brightly coloured birds - which were once widespread in South Island beech forests - were shifted to Resolution Island this week, following a transfer there of 60 mohua in 2011.
The mohua are the first native birds to be introduced to Resolution Island since conservationist Richard Henry transferred more than 500 native birds there in the 1800s to protect them from rats and stoats on the mainland.
Mr Henry's dream was destroyed when stoats invaded the island by the 1900s.
The Department of Conservation says monitoring and trapping continues of the very few stoats left.
