Hatching Hope: Black Petrel Season on Aotea
Tākoketai Black petrel chicks are hatching on Aotea Great Barrier Island, offering hope for one of Aotearoa’s most threatened seabirds.
With only around 5,000 breeding pairs remaining, the tākoketai is one of our most at-risk seabirds, facing threats from fishing bycatch and habitat loss.
In April, as part of the largest black petrel tracking study ever undertaken, satellite trackers will be placed on fledglings before they leave Aotea, revealing where young birds spend their crucial first few months at sea.
Once widespread across Aotearoa, the tākoketai black petrel now breed on just two islands in the Hauraki Gulf.
High on the slopes of Hirakimata on Aotea Great Barrier Island, something remarkable is happening.
In burrows tucked beneath forest roots and moss, tākoketai black petrel chicks are hatching. These downy youngsters, born in January and February 2026, represent both hope and uncertainty for one of Aotearoa’s most threatened seabirds.
This summer, Live Ocean’s Impact Director Hannah Prior and Project Manager Elaine Harris joined the scientific research team on Aotea to witness the start of this next chapter. What they found was a story of dedication, mystery, and a race against time.
A Taonga Species on the Decline
Once widespread across Aotearoa, the tākoketai black petrel now breed in just two places: Aotea Great Barrier Island and Te Hauturu-o-Toi Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
With fewer than 5,000 breeding pairs remaining, lead researcher Biz Bell has been intensively monitoring the population on Aotea since 1995. What she’s found is they’re declining by at least 1.4% each year. Even more concerning is what happens after chicks leave the nest: fewer than 10% ever return to breed.
We know that fledglings travel thousands of kilometres across the Pacific to the waters off Ecuador. But what happens next – where they feed, what threats they face, and why so few survive to adulthood – remains one of the great mysteries in New Zealand seabird conservation.
Inside the Burrows: Hatching Season 2026
January and February mark hatching season. After eggs are laid from late-November through December, researchers carefully monitor burrows, checking on breeding adults and looking for the first signs of life underground.
When the Live Ocean team visited, the researchers were identifying parents and recording chick and egg development. Black petrels can live up to 50 years and breeding pairs return to the same burrow year after year, so this information along with the 30 years of data collected previously helps build a picture of the lives of these birds.
After hatching, the chicks will remain hidden in their burrows for several months, fed by their parents under cover of darkness. By late April and early May, they will be ready to fledge, stepping out for the first time and launching into the vast Pacific Ocean.
And that’s when the next phase begins.
The Largest Black Petrel Tracking Study Ever
In April, as part of the largest black petrel tracking study ever undertaken, satellite trackers will be placed on fledglings before they leave Aotea.
Solar-powered units can transmit data for up to a year, mapping migration routes and revealing where young birds spend their crucial first months and years at sea.
We already know fledglings head toward Ecuadorian waters, but critical questions remain:
- Do juveniles stay in South America year-round?
- Are they interacting heavily with fisheries?
- Is bycatch a key driver of low return rates?
- Are climate shifts in the Pacific affecting food availability?
- Are certain routes more dangerous than others?
With fewer than 10% of chicks ever returning, understanding that first journey is essential to reversing the species’ decline.
Last Christmas, supporters helped fund trackers to make this possible. In May, when the fledglings take flight, those trackers will go live turning mystery into data, and data into action.
“The ultimate goal is to chart a course for recovery and protection of this on the brink species, so that we might see their return to some former nesting sites right around the North Island.”
Biz Bell
Wildlife Management International
The Live Ocean
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