Kiwi Pukupuku | Little Spotted Kiwi

Kiwi pukupuku is the smallest of our five kiwi species and has brownish-grey feathers with light and dark grey broken bands sometimes looking quite ‘spotty’. As they are nocturnal, they are rarely seen but appear to be slowly increasing in number from the original translocation of twenty birds from Tiritiri Matangi and Kapiti Island. Males weigh about 1150 g, are smaller than females (1350 g) and have shorter bills. All kiwi are flightless. Their mean life expectancy is forty-five years.

They are now often heard calling in the Park. Calls are a long series of high-pitched whistles usually repeated ten to twenty or more times. Male calls are higher pitched than females.

The female lays one or two eggs between July and January and the male does all the incubation which takes about seventy days. The chicks first leave the nest after about five days and are independent after about four weeks. Pairs guard their territories from other kiwi, sometimes resorting to fights.