Pāuatahanui Wildlife Reserve
Facts and practical information
Pāuatahanui Wildlife Reserve is a wetland reserve at the eastern edge of the Pāuatahanui Inlet of the Porirua Harbour in Porirua, New Zealand. The reserve contains the most significant area of saltmarsh in the lower North Island of New Zealand. It also includes tidal mudflats, shrub lands and regenerating coastal forest. The reserve covers 50 hectares, of which the Department of Conservation owns 46 hectares, and Forest & Bird owns the remaining 4 hectares under covenant to the Queen Elizabeth II Trust. The reserve is managed by a committee of Forest & Bird representatives in association with the Department of Conservation. ()
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Best Ways to Experience the Park
Wildlife
AnimalsSee what popular animal species you can meet in this location.
Bar-tailed godwit
The bar-tailed godwit is a large wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It has distinctive red breeding plumage...
Birds
Caspian tern
The Caspian tern is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no accepted subspecies.
Birds
White-faced heron
The white-faced heron also known as the white-fronted heron, and incorrectly as the grey heron, or blue crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the...
Birds
Royal spoonbill
The royal spoonbill also known as the black-billed spoonbill, occurs in intertidal flats and shallows of fresh and saltwater wetlands in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea...
Birds
Australasian swamphen
The Australasian swamphen is a species of swamphen occurring in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, it is known as the pukeko. The species used...
Birds
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