Bird whisperer helped conserve NZ’s rare species
RRon Nilsson
conservationist b August 28, 1941 d October 26, 2022
on Nilsson was New Zealand’s own bird whisperer. Nilsson wasn’t just a conservationist or walking encyclopaedia on New Zealand’s native birds, he often said you could tell a bird’s story by the way it sang.
Nilsson was a specialist in endangered species, whose conservation career spanned more than 24 years with the Department of Conservation, formerly NZ Wildlife Service.
He became so knowledgeable in his career that he could communicate with birds, according to his family and colleagues.
‘‘He always had an affinity with birds and the ability to spend long periods of time in their natural environment. As a kid he would always get us to listen out to the bird sounds and work out what is that bird trying to communicate,’’ says daughter Kjesten Nilsson.
‘‘From listening to the birds you get a whole story to what’s happening in their world and in their environment.’’
In 1957 Nilsson joined the Ornithological Society of New Zealand. His most passionate work was 30 years of trying to get conclusive evidence of the living existence of the South Island kō kako, a bird officially listed as extinct in 2007. He did not get to live out that dream.
However, DOC, which had once written off the bird as extinct, has now reclassified that as ‘‘not enough evidence’’.
‘‘That was a small win,’’ says Kjesten. ‘‘I always knew with Dad, he would never presume anything, and everything was always based on evidence.
‘‘You’d think you’d hear something, but unless he was absolutely sure it was a no.’’
He had better luck with the kā kā pō . He led the first kā kā pō expedition into the Esperance Valley in Fiordland in 1974, when the population was near nonexistent.
Between 1974 and 1977, 18 males were found in Fiordland, but no females. In 1975 Nilsson discovered ‘‘Richard Henry’’ – named after a pioneer New Zealand conservationist – living in the remote
Gulliver Valley 1000 metres above sea level.
Richard Henry and the rediscovery of a population of about 150 kā kā pō on Stewart Island made it possible to begin the successful programme to conserve the species.
Nilsson’s other favourite birds were the black stilt and the black robin. When he started working on the black robin restoration programme in the Chatham Islands, there were just seven in New Zealand; now numbers have reached 300.
In the 1970s, little was known about the black stilt, so Nilsson monitored the population. In 1980 the population crashed to about 27 adults and it became the world’s rarest wading bird.
In response, Nilsson created a team to manage the population and a breeding centre was eventually set up in Twizel.
Nilsson was also an explorer. His expeditions included searches for lesser-known species such as black petrels, South Island bush wrens, Stead’s bush wrens, laughing owls, orange-fronted parakeets and the great spotted kiwi. He was the first to search for and find South Georgian diving petrels on Codfish Island.
In 1970 he was able to realise his dream and joined the Wildlife Service as a field officer in the central North Island at Murupara.
He was appointed to the Fauna Conservation section of the service, responsible for threatened species, and returned to Dunedin in 1971.
Born in the North Island, Nilsson grew up on the Otago Peninsula and made the south his home. He had three children, Kit, Jennie and Kjesten, and was grandfather to Tarn, Pippi, Max, Mackenzie and Quentin.
‘‘During our childhood he was away a lot,’’ Kjesten says. ‘‘When he was around he was very warm and loving, and he spent a lot of his time with us in the outdoors, that was his passion – walks in the bush listening to birds and tagging on to projects he was connected to.’’
All the children grew up loving the outdoors, the bush and, of course, birds.
The family would pack up every summer holidays and head away for weeks in one of the south’s national parks. ‘‘His happy place was walking out in the bush and in the national parks.
‘‘He loved talking about the weather because it was an important subject for him . . . that’s something he has passed on to all us kids, we are fascinated with the weather.’’
He never owned a pet bird at home because ‘‘he would have hated the idea of a caged bird’’ and he disliked cats, for obvious reasons.
During his years in Dunedin he was able to work on a number of iconic endangered species, including takahē , South Island saddlebacks and yellow-eyed penguins.
This work took him from places as far afield as Maud and Stephens Islands in the Marlborough Sounds to the Subantarctic Islands.
He was a part of the Otago Tramping Club for more than 50 years. In 1965 he took part in a ‘‘freedom walk’’ by club members that led to the opening up of the Milford Track, which until then had been open only to commercial guided tours.
‘‘He always saw the best in everyone, he was a real people person,’’ Kjesten says. ‘‘He was an absolute charmer and would always chat away to people and engage in conversations.
’’He was a very special guy and a great dad. He’s left a legacy.’’
Caldwell