Takahe

The Takahe is a large, heavily built, flightless rail with rich blue-purple plumage on the head, neck, and underparts contrasting with an olive-green back and wings. Its most striking feature is a massive, stout red bill and matching red frontal shield above it, paired with sturdy red legs built for pushing through dense tussock.

Long believed extinct after no confirmed sightings for around fifty years, the Takahe made international headlines when a small population was rediscovered in the remote Murchison Mountains of Fiordland in 1948. Since then it has become one of New Zealand's flagship conservation species, with an intensive captive-breeding and translocation program establishing additional populations on predator-free islands and fenced sanctuaries.

Key field marks

• Large, heavy-bodied flightless rail, noticeably bigger and bulkier than the related Pukeko
• Deep blue-purple head, neck, and underparts
• Olive-green back and wings
• Massive red bill and red frontal shield
• Sturdy red legs

Similar species

• Pukeko is much smaller, slimmer, and lighter-bodied, with a more slender bill and frontal shield, and it can fly (weakly) unlike the flightless Takahe.
• No other New Zealand bird approaches the Takahe's combination of large size, flightlessness, and massive red bill.

Range

Historically widespread across New Zealand, now naturally occurring only in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland, with additional populations established through translocation on predator-free islands and fenced sanctuaries around the country.

Habitat

In its natural Fiordland stronghold it lives in alpine and subalpine tussock grassland; translocated populations also use lowland grassland and pasture within predator-proof reserves.

Migration

Non-migratory and flightless, though wild birds may move seasonally between higher summer tussock grounds and lower, more sheltered winter forest margins.

Behavior

Generally shy and wary in the wild, Takahe forage steadily through tussock, using their strong bill to strip and process grass stems, and defend a territory as a mated pair.

Voice

Gives a range of low, resonant booming and grunting calls, along with softer contact notes between pair members and chicks.

Feeding

Feeds mainly on the leaf bases and stems of tussock grasses, holding stems in one foot while stripping them with its powerful bill, and also eats seeds and roots.

Nesting

Builds a well-hidden nest of woven tussock on the ground; both parents share incubation of the one to two eggs and cooperate in feeding and protecting the chicks, which stay with the family group for an extended period.