New Zealand's threatened birds

Introduction

Find out which birds face the greatest risk of extinction.

The following birds have been classified as Nationally Critical, Nationally Endangered or Nationally Vulnerable according to the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS).

On this page:

Threatened

At Risk

Threatened

Nationally Critical

Most severely threatened, facing an immediate high risk of extinction:

Nationally Endangered

Facing high risk of extinction in the short term:

Nationally Vulnerable

Facing a risk of extinction in the medium term:

Nationally Increasing

Small but increasing population still facing a risk of extinction in the medium term:

  • Antarctic tern
  • Brown teal/pāteke
  • Bush falcon
  • Campbell Island teal
  • Little spotted kiwi
  • New Zealand dabchick
  • North Island kōkako
  • Northern New Zealand dotterel
  • Otago shag
  • Red-tailed tropicbird
  • Wrybill

At risk

Declining

Population declining but still moderately common:

Recovering

Population increasing after previously declining:

Relict

Small population stabilised after declining:

  • Antarctic prion
  • Auckland Island banded dotterel
  • Black shag
  • Broad-billed prion
  • Buff weka
  • Chatham Island blue penguin
  • Cook's petrel
  • Fairy prion
  • Flesh-footed shearwater
  • Fluttering shearwater
  • Grey noddy
  • Grey petrel
  • Grey-backed storm petrel
  • Kermadec little shearwater
  • Little shag
  • Mottled petrel
  • New Zealand white-faced storm petrel
  • North Island saddleback/tīeke
  • North Island weka
  • Northern diving petrel
  • Red-crowned parakeet/kākāriki
  • Southern diving petrel
  • Stewart Island robin/toutouwai
  • Wedge-tailed shearwater
  • White-naped petrel

Nationally Uncommon

Naturally small population and therefore susceptible to harmful influences:

  • Antipodes Island parakeet
  • Antipodes Island pipit
  • Antipodes Island red-crowned parakeet
  • Antipodes Island snipe
  • Auckland Island pipit
  • Auckland Island rail
  • Auckland Island snipe
  • Auckland Island tomtit
  • Australian coot
  • Black-fronted dotterel
  • Bounty Island shag
  • Campbell Island mollymawk
  • Campbell Island shag
  • Chatham fulmar prion
  • Chatham Island fantail
  • Chatham Island mollymawk
  • Chatham Island red-crowned parakeet
  • Chatham Island warbler
  • Chathams pipit
  • Codfish Island fernbird
  • Fulmar prion
  • Kermadec parakeet
  • Kermadec petrel "Winter"
  • Little black shag
  • Northern Buller's mollymawk
  • Poor knights bellbird
  • Rakiura tokoeka
  • Royal spoonbill
  • Snares Cape petrel
  • Snares crested penguin
  • Snares fernbird
  • Snares Island snipe
  • Snares Island tomtit
  • Soft-plumaged petrel
  • Subantarctic little shearwater
  • Three Kings bellbird
  • Westland petrel

All birds

Conservation status of birds in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021
By: Hugh A. Robertson, Karen A. Baird, Graeme P. Elliott, Rodney A. Hitchmough, Nikki J. McArthur, Troy Makan, Colin M. Miskelly, Colin. J. O’Donnell, Paul M. Sagar, R. Paul Scofield, Graeme A. Taylor and Pascale Michel
New Zealand Threat Classification Series 36. Department of Conservation, Wellington. 43 p. (PDF, 824K)