Old Blue, Reviver of Dying Bird Species, Is No More

WELLINGTON, New Zealand —  Old Blue, the bird who became the heroine of a conservationist’s success story and saved the rare Chatham Islands black robin from extinction, is dead.

So high was the regard for Old Blue that New Zealand’s government officially announced her death in Parliament.

Four years ago, the black robin was the world’s rarest bird. There were only five of them left on the remote and windswept Chatham Islands in the South Pacific, 530 miles east of New Zealand’s main islands. And Old Blue was the last remaining fertile female.

But through her efforts and a unusual program of cross-fostering developed by the New Zealand Wildlife Service, the species has been saved.

Last Bit of Altruism Wildlife officers are planning one more season of fostering robins’ eggs to other species before leaving the birds to their own devices.

A team from the Wildlife Service is currently on the Chatham Islands, monitoring the birds’ progress.

Of the 20 birds they left at the end of last summer, 19 had been accounted for--all, that is, except Old Blue, who was named for the color of the leg tag she wore.

She was 14 years old, and a great-grandmother many times over. Apparently, she did not survive the winter.

“She was always a gregarious sort--quick to find a mate and quick to come to people--so we can only come to the conclusion that she is dead,” wildlife officer Richard Anderson said.

Light in a Gloomy Nest But the bird service is far from gloomy. This season, there are 12 nestlings, four fledglings and the prospects of seven other eggs hatching for a total population of more than 30 totake into 1985.

“The crisis appears to have passed,” said Don Merton, the wildlife officer who helped pioneer the cross-fostering technique, the first successfully developed for a songbird in the wild.

“We now have new breeding stock and the young birds are proving much more productive and successful breeders than the old ones,” he added.

The robins have been split into two groups, on Mangere Island and South East Island, two of the few places on Earth free from mammals. Cats, rats or mice would wipe them out in a few months.

The main dangers to their survival are fire, storms, the occasional harrier hawk, and the clumsy mutton bird--which can kill chicks by inadvertently landing on their nests.