Mangawhai Wildlife Refuge
The 245 ha Mangawhai Wildlife Refuge (MWR) is located on a 3.5 km long sand spit situated between the Mangawhai estuary and the ocean.
Managed by the Department of Conservation, the MWR is an internationally significant breeding site for the Threatened tūturiwhatu (Northern NZ dotterel) and the Critically Endangered tara Iti (NZ fairy tern) - New Zealand’s rarest indigenous bird, with a population of approximately 40 individuals.
Other Threatened or At Risk species known to utilise MWR include banded dotterel, variable oystercatcher, caspian tern and white-fronted tern.
Both DOC and the NZ fairy tern trust undertake predator control here.
The New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust.
As well as assisting DOC with monitoring fairy tern over the breeding season, since 2012 the Trust has managed and funded a year-round intensive trapping programme on the MWR to protect fairy tern and other ground nesting birds.
The Shorebirds Trust
The Shorebirds Trust has partnered with Boffa Miskell and DOC’s tara iti (NZ Fairy Tern) Recovery Group to develop standardised best practice predator control for fairy tern breeding sites.
