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🪶🌿 What do kākāriki karaka eat? 🌸🍃

These critically endangered parakeets have a varied diet, taking insects throughout the year and eating leaves, fruits, flowers, and seeds when available. They generally destroy seeds with their beak and only swallow whole tiny seeds, such as those of kōtukutuku.

Despite being far more recent arrivals to the country compared with the deeply endemic kākā, kākāriki have forged an important role in the forest ecosystem. They are able to exploit excesses of food by producing many offspring. During a beech mast, kākāriki numbers would have boomed, which in turn would feed many kārearea. Their role as seed predators may have influenced floristic composition as well.

Today, their populations aren`t limited by food, but predation by introduced mammals. Forest degradation from browsing deer and possums also reduces habitat quality.
Protecting kākāriki karaka means reducing these pressures so they can once again thrive as part of the ngahere community. 🌱

📸 Photos by Sean McGrath taken right here at the Sanctuary

👉 Find out more about our Bird of the Year campaign and how you can get involved: Link in our bio

#KākārikiKaraka #BirdOfTheYear #BOTY2025 #BrookSanctuary

Ngahere Neighbourhood 🌿🦋 Mānuka moth - Forest semilooper | Declana floccosa

This highly variable moth — sometimes called the mānuka moth — can wear anything from mottled browns to soft greys in impressively varied patterns, making it a true fashion chameleon of the ngahere. With a wingspan of 27–35 mm, its subtle patterns help it melt into bark, leaves, and lichen.

The caterpillars are not picky eaters, feeding on a wide range of native and exotic plants — from Muehlenbeckia to pines, eucalypts, and Douglas fir.

A decline of this species was observed during the 1980s, coinciding with the accidental introduction and establishment of common wasps from Europe. Forest semilooper numbers have bounced back. The forest semilooper had switched its emergence time from spring-summer to winter, possibly to avoid predation from wasps.

Photos by @chellikesplaaants and @henry.__.hart

#NgahereNeighbourhood #BrookSanctuary #ForestSemilooper #DeclanaFloccosa #NZMoths #NZWildlife #NativeMothsNZ

🟠 What’s the Difference Between Kākāriki Karaka and Other Kākāriki? 💚💛❤️

It’s easy to confuse kākāriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeet) with their yellow- or red-crowned cousins — especially at a distance. But once you know what to look (and listen) for, the differences are striking.

👀 Spot the difference
Kākāriki karaka have a lemon-yellow crown and a bright orange band just above the beak — not red like yellow-crowned or red-crowned kākāriki or a golden yellow in yellow-crowned kakariki.

They also have azure blue on their wings and rump patches that are orange (not crimson).

Juveniles are duller and slightly bluer in colour, and IDing them can be tricky — even experts struggle!

👂 Heard more than seen
These birds are famously hard to spot, often giving away their presence only with a soft chatter or squeak. They spend much of their time high in the beech canopy, only sometimes dropping low to feed on invertebrates or drink from a stream.

🌿 Rare and range-restricted
Once widespread, kākāriki karaka are now confined to just a few valleys in Canterbury and a handful of predator-free sites — including the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. They rely heavily on the pest-free beech forest habitat, like here at the Sanctuary.

🌟 Smallest and rarest
Of Aotearoa’s kākāriki species, kākāriki karaka are the smallest — and also the most endangered. Every vote helps raise awareness for their protection!

📸 Photos by Sean McGrath

🧡 Vote kākāriki karaka for Bird of the Year
#KākārikiKaraka #BirdOfTheYear2025 #KnowYourKākāriki #EndangeredSpecies #BrookSanctuary #BOTY2025 #BackFromTheBrink #NativeBirdsNZ

🦎 One of the world’s most unique lizards lives here at the Sanctuary

We might be a little late for World Lizard Day (14 August), but the Nelson green gecko (Naultinus stellatus) is worth celebrating any day!

Unlike their tropical relatives overseas, New Zealand geckos are unique. They can live for decades (some species into their 60s), give birth to live young, and stay active in chilly conditions where most lizards elsewhere would be dormant.

The Nelson green gecko, also known as the starred gecko, is especially striking. The population found here at the Sanctuary often shows plus-or star-like patterns across their bright green bodies. Their pink mouth and red tongue are key identification features to distinguish between other members of the genus— a brilliant flash of colour if you’re lucky enough to glimpse one.

Sadly, this taonga is classified as Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable, with predation, habitat loss and even poaching among the pressures it faces. Secretive and canopy-dwelling, they are rarely seen, making Henry’s photographs a real treasure.

🦎 Next time you walk our tracks, look up — you might be near one of the world’s most unique lizards, a reminder of why protecting and restoring our ngahere matters.

📸 Photos by @henry.__.hart, right here at the Sanctuary

#WorldLizardDay #NelsonGreenGecko #StarredGecko #NaultinusStellatus #NZGecko #NativeWildlife #ConservationNZ #ProtectOurTaonga #Biodiversity #PredatorFreeNZ #Ngahere #BrookSanctuary #NelsonNZ

Ngahere Neighbourhood 🪞✨ Kāmahi spindle moth | Tatosoma tipulata

A master of disguise in the ngahere, the kāmahi spindle moth blends so well with mossy trunks and lichen that you could walk right past without noticing it. By night, these olive-green moths take to the air — most often from September to March — in search of sugary nectar and mates.

The larvae feed on the leaves of kāmahi, beech, and tōtara. They rest curled along leaf edges during the day, perfectly camouflaged from hungry birds. When it’s time to pupate, they retreat to the forest floor, weaving a thin silk cocoon among the leaf litter.

Endemic to the North, South and Stewart Islands, the kāmahi spindle moth is a reminder of the many small, hidden lives that make our ecosystems so rich.

📸 Photos by @henry.__.hart taken right here at the Sanctuary

#NgahereNeighbourhood #BrookSanctuary #NativeMothsNZ #KāmahiSpindleMoth #TatosomaTipulata #BeechForest #NZWildlife