- Conservation status
- In serious trouble
Forget those screeching, showy parrots, meet the bird that never leaves the mountain – the plucky and charming pīwauwau. Anyone who's encountered one of these gold and green gems bobbing and ducking in rocky alpine zones is sure to fall in love.
Weighing less than an AA battery and laying eggs the size of 10c coins, these tiny rock hoppers defy all laws of survival and demonstrate true mountain bravery.
Campaign Manager
Lisa Doyle
These boulder-hopping alpine trekkers spend their whole lives above the bushline - dodging stoats, braving snow, and bouncing through scree. Weighing in at just 16 grams, pīwauwau are New Zealand’s tiniest alpine native bird. Masters of hiding, they face growing threats from pests as climate change pushes predators higher into the mountains. With predator control, around 85% of nests succeed; without it, survival rates plummet, putting one of our last two native wren species at risk of extinction.
Vote for the bird that’s hard to find, harder to forget, and too precious to lose.
#VotePīwauwau for Bird of the Year 2025
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