A staff member of a conservation organization holds a kiwi bird during an event at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Credit: Sara Tansy/Capital Kiwi Project via AP

The kiwi, New Zealand's sacred national bird, vanished from the hills around Wellington more than a century ago. Now the capital's residents are waging an improbable citizen campaign to return the endangered flightless birds to the city.

"They are a part of who we are and our sense of belonging here," said Paul Ward, founder of the Capital Kiwi Project, a charitable trust. "But they've been gone from these hills for well over a century and we decided as Wellingtonians that wasn't right."

On a hill wreathed in mist above the dark sea that runs between New Zealand's North and South Islands, Ward and others crossed rugged farmland late on Tuesday night, carrying seven crates in silence by dim red torchlight.…