Retorts

Bird Releases

Article [Bright Future for Mokoia Island, September 1995] describes release by DoC of saddlebacks and stitchbirds on Mokoia Island, Lake Rotorua.

It mentions inter alia that plant seeds are vital (sic) to these liberated birds. By this remark I infer that your writer may mean either that seeds are vital to the birds as food or alternatively, if the seeds are in berries, vital to the regeneration of habitat. However, if food is meant, two main reference works do not say that seeds are vital or staple items in the diets of these species.

Hallam Secker, Featherston