Our 2000 kilometre-long island chain, set in the great Southern and Pacific Oceans, provides a vital breeding base for millions of seabirds. Eighty-four seabird species breed in the region, making New Zealand the most diverse seabird community in the world. Nearly half of those species breed nowhere else. Additionally, many other seabirds visit our waters throughout the year. Which is why New Zealand is recognised as a very special place on the world seabird map, an international hotspot for both birds and birdwatching.

The reappearance of the New Zealand storm petrel, a small seabird not much bigger than a sparrow which had been thought extinct for 150 years, was welcome and headline-grabbing news. Some observers now suspect that the birds are breeding somewhere in the outer Hauraki Gulf, although nobody knows where. As New Zealand Geographic Trust members, all subscribers have the opporunity to join in the search.

For the story of the New Zealand storm petrel we have to go back to 1827, when two black and white storm petrels were collected off East Cape during the first cruise of the French corvette, Astrolabe, and which are now held in the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. There is also a specimen collected in 1895 somewhere between the Hauraki Gulf and Banks Peninsula, now held in the British Museum of Natural History. But very little is known about the bird.

During the 20th century scientists couldn’t even agree on whether it was a unique species, and without sightings at sea or birds turning up as beach-wrecks, the storm petrel was relegated to the status of a probably-extinct colour form of the Wilson’s storm petrel and largely forgotten.

But then, in January 2003, Brent Stephenson and Ian ‘Sav’ Saville were leading a pelagic birdwatchingspotting trip near the Coromandel when, surrounded by a number of white-faced petrels, ‘a blackish storm petrel with a gleaming white rump’ turned up. It was only after examining the photographic evidence that they began to supsect they’d seen an extinct bird. Then, on November 4, 2005, a New Zealand storm petrel alighted on fisherman Geordie Murman’s shirt while he was anchored one night near Little Barrier Island, which he was able to capture. Two years later DNA samples were taken from three birds which were then released with identification bands and transmitters attached. But their breeding site—or sites—still remain a mystery.

In the Hauraki Gulf the eradication of predators from many islands has significantly boosted seabird populations. The rediscovery of the supposedly extinct storm petrel, and numerous sightings over five consecutive summers in Hauraki Gulf waters, may signal a species released from predation pressure.

But finding the breeding sites is the only way to confirm this, and to ensure that they sites are protected.

Chris Gaskin is one of a small team of scientists, volunteers and DOC staff involved in the search. And subscribers are invited to join him and other members of the research group when they head out into the Gulf again in April, to gather information about the bird and its population. It is an opportunity to see one of our most enigmatic birds, along with dozens of other seabirds that feature so prominently in the Gulf.