---
title: "Hutton’s Shearwaters get painted for a census"
---

# Hutton’s Shearwaters get painted for a census

A census of the [globally Endangered](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22698252) Hutton’s Shearwater *Puffinus huttoni* at its high-altitude breeding localities in the Seaward Kaikoura mountains of New Zealand’s South Island is being carried out by the New Zealand [Department of Conservation](https://www.doc.govt.nz/) and the [Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust](http://www.huttonsshearwater.org.nz/).

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Shearwaters/Huttons.paint.3.jpg)

 Hutton's Shearwater breeding valley

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Shearwaters/Huttons.paint.2.jpg)

 Hutton's Shearwater in the snow at its breeding locality

 Photographs courtesy of Wildlife Management International

 Hutton’s Shearwaters are being caught at night as they return to their snow-clad colonies and marked with non-toxic paint, to enable them to be re-sighted at sea.  Over two nights the field team has caught and marked over 2000 shearwaters.

 Survey teams are now on the water off the Kaikoura coast attempting to re-sight the marked birds at sea.  Already, one of the painted birds has been scoped from the shore among a large flock of Hutton’s Shearwaters.

 Hutton’s Shearwater suffered from landslides caused by the November 2016 Kaikoura earthquake that obliterated parts of its breeding sites and it appears a significant portion of the breeding population was lost as a consequence (read more [here](https://www.acap.aq/en/search14?q=Kaikoura+earthquake)).

 Read why Hutton's Shearwater wants your vote for [New Zealand Bird of the Year 2018](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/3133-vote-albatross-or-petrel-it-s-bird-of-the-year-time-again-in-new-zealand) [here](http://www.huttonsshearwater.org.nz/bird-year-2018-voting/).

 Information from [Wildlife Management Internationa](http://www.wmil.co.nz/)l.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 October 2018*