Weka

Weka are smart birds.

They can be cheeky and are well known for stealing food or other bits and pieces left lying around by campers. They used to be common all over New Zealand but now they are not so common

Why? Well over the years they have had to cope with stoats and dogs hunting them, loggers destroying their homeland and droughts wiping out their feeding grounds.

Weka are omnivorous which means they pretty much eat everything they can get their beak into. They munch on insects, slugs, frogs, lizards, rats, mice, eggs, small birds and they also enjoy leaves, berries and seeds.

Sometimes they will try to eat native bird eggs, our special native lizards and insects so they can’t always be kept on predator-free islands where they have to share a home with endangered animals just in case they eat them all!

Where do weka live?

Weka, Photo: Damon McKinlay

Weka aren’t too fussy about where they live as long as there are bushes to hide under. You might come across weka in the forest, amongst the manuka at the back of a farm or squishing around near a swamp. You might even find them on the beach poking around for sea-food like sea-snails and sand-hoppers. 

And sometimes they’ll even make their nests under houses if people are friendly and they have no dogs. 

Weka feathers are speckled brown with black which camouflage the birds amongst the bushes. Weka are the size of a chicken but they can’t fly because their wings are very small.

They are very feisty birds and will fight to protect their chicks or their territory from other weka..

Weka make their nests are on the ground (because they can’t fly), and hide them in thick bushes or under logs. The nest is made out of grass in a bowl shape with a soft, cosy lining of leaves, wool, feathers and hair.

Who’s who in the weka world?

There are four subspecies of weka:
 • North Island weka
These have become very rare. They used to be common around Gisborne and Poverty Bay but now only a small population survives behind Opotiki. Forest and Bird members used to breed weka and release them to establish new populations. Small populations now live on islands in the Hauraki Gulf and the Coromandel, where they are safe from predators. The largest weka population has been established in the Bay of Islands around Russell where pest control protects them and other native birds, such as the kiwi too.
• Western weka
These are most numerous weka on mainland New Zealand. Populations of these weka live in north-west Nelson, Marlborough and along the West Coast.
• Stewart Island weka
This type of weka is rare. It is only found on Stewart Island and can sometime be seen on the beaches eating sandhoppers and sea snails.
• Buff weka
The Buff weka of Canterbury became extinct on the mainland around 1920. Luckily twelve Buff weka had been taken to the Chatham Islands in 1905. These twelve birds multiplied and now there are around 60,000 Buff weka on the Chatham Islands.