As nature falls silent in most cities around the world, New Zealand’s capital has been transformed by the sound of native birds returning to the daw

Penguins in the pond, kiwi in the back yard: how a city brought back its birds

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2024-04-22 10:00:05

As nature falls silent in most cities around the world, New Zealand’s capital has been transformed by the sound of native birds returning to the dawn chorus

S ome time in the pre-dawn darkness, the commotion starts. From her bed, Danae Mossman hears the noise building: loud romantic liaisons, vomiting, squeals, the sound of bodies hitting the pool at full tilt.

Mossman’s hard-partying housemates are a flock of kororā, or little penguin, the world’s smallest, which have formed a growing colony beneath her house in the Wellington suburb of Karaka Bays on the Miramar peninsula. They use her lily ponds for pool parties, and during nesting season, they create a stink.

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation encouraged the birds to move to specially built nests closer to the sea, but so far they have shown no desire to leave. So Mossman has come to embrace her housemates, even installing a ladder in the ponds so the penguins can clamber out.

“We figured if they were happy and safe under our home, then we wouldn’t want them any place they were more vulnerable,” Mossman says. “The most annoying thing about them being under the house is how loud they are.”