Pomona Island Charitable Trust - Monitoring Bird Populations

Monitoring Bird Numbers on The Islands

Understanding the Bird Populations
Prior to the eradication of pests from Pomona and Rona Islands, staff and students from the University of Otago completed five-minute bird counts at a number of sites on both islands. Since December 2007, the Trust has conducted five-minute bird counts at the same locations.

Between 2005 and 2009, Pomona has seen an increase of 100% in the number of birds counted. A graph is available here.

Many species of native birds have increased in number during the counts since 2005. Thesze include bellbird, brown creeper, fantail, grey warbler, rifleman, tomtit and tui. A graph for many species is here.

Since May 2008, the Trust has also carried out five-minute bird counts at a much larger number of sites on Pomona Island. These counts are completed by volunteers 4 times a year and help us to understand how the "relative abundance" of birds varies from year to year and from season to season.

Each count involves a small team of volunteers listening and watching for 5 minutes at a given location. The number of birds seen or heard is recorded during the count together with information on the weather, background noise and time of day.