During our university student days on Tiritiri Wattle Valley was a seldom visited wilderness. The winter flowering wattles were an important food source for Tui, Bellbird and Kakariki. These species were often seen flying into the valley, but were difficult to follow.
Nowadays the Wattle Valley Track is well maintained and highly used. It is a showcase for some of the success of the Open Sanctuary concept. Rare native birds that were at one time reduced to single populations, confined to hard to visit off-shore islands, can now easily be seen by visitors to Tiritiri. Saddlebacks are common along the track, and special feeding stations have been set up to bring Hihi, or Stitchbirds, right to the side of the track.
Hihi were common birds at the time of European settlement of New Zealand, but by 1885 had been wiped out everywhere except on Little Barrier Island. In the 1980’s the Wildlife Service (now DOC) began transferring birds to other predator-free islands. Populations were established on Tiritiri, Kapiti, and Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua. The Hihi has since also been re-intoduced to the mainland at the Zealandia Wildlife Refuge in Wellington and at The Ark in the Park in Cascade Kauri Park in the Watakere Ranges. Only the long-established Little Barrier population is considered to be completely stable and self-supporting.
The Hihi is a small honeyeater-like bird. Males have a dark velvety cap and short white ear-tufts, which can be raised somewhat away from the head. A yellow band across the chest separates the black head from the rest of the body, which is grey. Females and juveniles are duller than males, lacking the black head and yellow chest band. The bill is rather thin and somewhat curved, and the tongue is long with a brush at the end for collecting nectar. Thin whiskers project out and slightly forward from the base of the bill.
Hihi are very active and call frequently. Their most common call, a tzit tzit sound, is believed to be the source of their common name, Stitchbird, as Buller noted that it "has a fanciful resemblance to the word stitch.”
Although Hihi share features such as a brush tongue with the Honeyeaters they are most closely related to the NZ Wattlebirds – the Saddleback, Kokako, and the extinct Huia.
Their main food is nectar, but the Hihi's diet covers over twenty species of native flowers and thirty species of fruit and many species of introduced plants. They also supplement their diet with small insects.
Hihi have to compete with Tui and Bellbird, and will feed from lower-quality food sources when these species are present. The Hihi rarely lands on the ground and seldom visits flowers on the large canopy trees favoured by the Tui and Bellbird (this may simply be because of the competition from the more aggressive, larger birds).
On Tiritiri, the forest is not yet mature and diverse enough to completely sustain the Hihi population. Feeding stations have been set up to supplement the diet with honeywater. These feeding stations have a cage over the feeding tray, with access through holes that are large enough for a Hihi to pass through, but small enough to keep out the larger Bellbirds and Tuis.
The cache is hidden along the Wattle Valley Track at a point where there is a great view back towards Auckland. It is not near a feeding station so you will not be disturbing birds while you look for the cache