24/01/2026
On only the gloomiest of nights in the Tuku Valley, Rēkohu Chatham Island, a silent disco ignites around a spotlight aimed into thick cloud. They look like bats or moths, fluttering in circles around the light's beam, but they are our smallest seabird: the grey-backed storm petrel, or reoreo.
While it's not uncommon to go night after night without landing the bird we're spotlighting for, the critically endangered Chatham tāiko, the ever-present storm petrels are welcome consolation as we plunge deeper into sleep deprivation. On the best nights, as many as 30 birds fill the sky, transforming it into a theatre of aerobatics, and the clearing ahead of us into a minefield of delicate seabirds.
This might be a common sight on mainland Aotearoa, if not for introduced predators. Instead, grey-backed storm petrels have never been found breeding on the mainland, but spotlighting in Fiordland indicates there may be elusive populations hanging on out of mammalian reach (search 'storm petrels in the spotlight' - by Colin Miskelly).
One research paper from last year (Bellvé et al., 2025) used historical and fossil records to predict the past abundance of seabirds breeding on mainland NZ, revealing probable breeding grounds almost everywhere. The grey-backed storm petrel, and/or similar species, may have bred around the South Island coast, particularly Fiordland, Stewart Island, and Northern Otago.
Back on Chatham Island, predator-proof seabird sanctuaries and ongoing control of unfenced habitat are crucial to the survival of Chatham Island tāiko and Chatham petrels, both species recently escaping extinction. Sanctuaries like Cape Sanctuary in Hawkes Bay and the fenced tītī colony in St Clair, Dunedin, are bringing seabirds back to the mainland. Restoring the seabird abundance of the past, however, depends on nationwide predator eradication.
This is a composite of 200 photos, taken at the tāiko lights over a couple of hours. I wanted to show just how much the storm petrels circled the lights, and my mountain of phone videos didn't really cut it! There are a couple of white-faced storm petrels here too, if you can spot them ;). I was inspired by Edin Whitehead's 'Celestial Navigators' photo, which uses a different technique but is one of my all-time favourite photos, and Pelle Cass' composite works.
Performed under permit for conservation purposes.
