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Our work

Understand, restore, protect.

Native bush feeds and shelters the birds of Mahurangi West. We study the birdlife, restore the habitat it depends on and look after what has been restored.

Why habitat matters

No bush, no birdsong.

  1. Food and shelter

    Native trees and shrubs feed birds and bats with fruit, nectar and insects, and give them somewhere to roost and nest.

  2. Weeds smother it

    Climbing asparagus, moth plant, wild ginger and woolly nightshade crowd out young natives and choke the canopy.

  3. Restore it and they return

    Clear the weeds and plant natives, and the bush can regrow. As it does, the birdsong comes back.

Understand

Counting birds tells us what’s coming back.

We have 20 bird monitoring stations across the peninsula. Each season around 20 volunteer counters spend half an hour at each one, recording every bird they see or hear.

Our counters were trained in December 2020 by Ngaire Wallen of the Takatu Landcare Group. The counts go to eBird, run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and on to the New Zealand Bird Atlas. They are also recorded in Trap.NZ.

Kākā are back
New bird counters with binoculars at a picnic table by the estuary

Flagship species

Matuku-hūrepo

Australasian bittern

A shy wetland bird, more often heard than seen. The matuku-hūrepo is the flagship species for our work.

Brian Bramell placing an acoustic bat logger on a tree at Te Muri

Pekapeka

Listening for bats

With a grant from Auckland Council we use acoustic listening devices to find pekapeka-tou-roa (long-tailed bats) on the peninsula, so we can help protect them and their roost trees.

Read more

New in 2026

Coast Guardians

Our first project under a three-year partnership with Auckland Council. Volunteers adopt a stretch of the Mahurangi West coastline and monitor it through the breeding season.

  • Record kororā (little blue penguins), nesting shorebirds and other coastal wildlife
  • Note threats such as human disturbance
  • Training with Auckland Council community ranger Jared Anderson
Register your interest

Restore

Swapping weeds for natives.

Volunteers, landowners and whānau clear pest plants and replant with natives, so the bush can regrow.

  • Planting days

    Volunteers plant natives along the coast, from the Jamieson Bay esplanade to Huawai Bay.

  • Huawai Bay reforestation

    Clearing invasive weeds and unwanted trees, then replanting with natives. More than 60 people planted about 1,300 natives at one working bee.

  • Morehu whānau land

    Pine removal and native planting at Jamieson Bay, supported by a 2021 Rodney Healthy Harbours grant.

  • Roadside planting

    Replanting road edges at Opahi Bay and along Mahurangi West roads.

  • Weed cafés

    One hour of weeding, mulching and watering young natives, alongside your neighbours.

Volunteers planting flaxes on a steep bank above the bay

Pest plants

The Buffer Zone programme.

The buffer zone is the 500 metres around Mahurangi Regional Park. Pest plants here spread into the park, so they need controlling on the land around it too.

We help landowners in the zone control climbing asparagus, moth plant, woolly nightshade and wild ginger, with advice and hands.

Pest plant guide Are you in the buffer zone?
Wild ginger and climbing asparagus smothering bush

Wild ginger and climbing asparagus. Photo: Allison Milne

Protect

Looking after what’s been restored.

Restored bush needs care for years. We work with Auckland Council so the gains last, inside the regional parks and across the private land around them.

  • A three-year partnership

    A memorandum of understanding with Auckland Council to restore and protect Mahurangi West and its regional parks.

  • The Buffer Zone

    Working with Auckland Council and landowners to keep pest plants out of Mahurangi Regional Park.

  • Long-term monitoring

    Bird counts and coastal monitoring show how restored areas are doing year after year.

  • 16,000+

    pest catches since 2019