Shock as Kiwi bird discovered in NZ hen house

But according to New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC), it's an increasingly common sight to find kiwis in backyards as efforts to save the endangered national emblem pick up steam.

Ms Jackets stumbled across the sleeping kiwi one morning earlier this month.

"I did a double take because not only was there a chicken on one side, but there was a kiwi asleep on the other side," she told News outlet Stuff.

"The chickens were absolutely fine with it. There was no trouble at all.

"I went back later on to check on it, and it had gone up the tunnel and back into the nesting box.

"It's such an experience and I still can't quite believe that it happened honestly."

Kiwis are beloved in New Zealand but it is exceedingly rare to see one outside of captivity.

Not only is the bird typically nocturnal, but numbers have dramatically reduced due to increased predators.

The bird spotted was a North Island brown kiwi, the most common of the five species of kiwi, with around 35,000 surviving, down from estimates in the millions before human settlement.

DOC revealed the backyard sighting in a Facebook post.

"Unique kiwi sightings like these are becoming more and more common in the Far North, all thanks to large community groups undertaking intensive predator control and reviving kiwi population numbers," the post read.

A great deal of effort has been invested in managing and growing kiwi numbers, including the creation of insurance populations on islands and giant walled-off sanctuaries across New Zealand.

A new project in Wellington, Capital Kiwi, has spent years trapping predators such as rats, possums and ferrets to create a safer environment for the birds to be released back into the wild.

Over the last year, 63 birds have been released into the hills to Wellington's west, producing the promising recent milestone of three kiwi chicks.

Four of the five kiwi species are classified as vulnerable.

DOC advises locals to keep cats and dogs under control in bushland home to kiwi, like Northland, and for dog owners to complete kiwi avoidance training for their pets.

Australian Associated Press