Heard of owls? Listen for ruru to help find out how well they are doing in the Wellington region.

Ruru/morepork in a tree.
Rights: Public domain

Ruru/morepork (Ninox novae-zelandiae)

The ruru is a nocturnal bird. It’s very quiet when it flies. We may only be aware of ruru when we hear them call at night.

Welcome to Citizen Ruru – where participating is as simple as it gets, all you have to do is lend your ears and provide a bit of information about your ruru encounters.

  • Where did you hear them?
  • When was it?
  • How many rurus did you hear?

Join in this project and become an invaluable part of a greater cause.

The ultimate goal? To piece together a comprehensive map revealing the favourite hangouts of ruru across Wellington City, and how well ruru are distributed around Wellington.

Are you ready? Get ready to listen, observe and uncover the nocturnal secrets of our beautiful feathered friends.

Ruru / morepork eyes.
Rights: DOC, CC BY 4.0

Ruru eyes

Ruru eyes are adapted to see well in the dark. The adaptation means ruru eyes don’t swivel in the socket like human eyes, and this is why they can swivel their heads 270 degrees!

Photo by Rod Hay.

Initially this project is running from December 2023 until the end of February 2024, but you will still be able to report observations on iNaturalist outside these times.

Find out more, including how to register your findings, here: www.avianz.net/index.php/resources/citizen-ruru

Related content

In 2022, the Science Learning Hub’s pick for Bird of the Year was our native forest kaitiaki – the ruru! Read about why we chose this fabulous bird and watch our campaign video.

The ruru has a number of distinct calls – take a listen and learn more in Ruru monitoring.

Read about the ruru and its connections to repo (wetlands):

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