Wildlife workers on Saturday released more of the dotterels that have been held at a wildlife facility near Tauranga since just after the grounding of the container ship Rena two months ago.
Sixty of the rare birds were captured to protect them from the oil that leaked from the ship.
[image:4000:half:right]Nine days ago 17 were released at sites along the Bay of Plenty coast to see how they responded to being reintroduced to the wild.
About 15 more were released from the Maketu spit on Saturday afternoon.
Wildlife response manager Helen McConnel says the spit is where they were captured. She says the risk of their health deteriorating in captivity has been growing too great and the remaining birds will be released soon.
Ms McConnel says they will continue to monitor the birds.
