Eileen Mayo

The kōkako has sometimes been regarded as a single species, with blue facial wattles in the North Island bird and orange in the South Island form. The North Island kōkako survives through intensive conservation management, while the South Island kōkako has not been reliably recorded since the late 1960s. When Eileen Mayo painted these birds in 1976 for the Gregg’s® Jelly Rare and Endangered Birds of New Zealand collectors’ card series, both were understood to be in decline, but the South Island kōkako was also widely seen as possibly extinct. Unverified sightings continue to circulate

(Bird Land: Te Kāhui Manu 15 August 2026 – 8 February 2027)