Kiwi chick's ridiculously late hatch 'amazing'

  • 04/08/2016
Tail End Charlie hatched more than a month after the season came to an end (Supplied)
Tail End Charlie hatched more than a month after the season came to an end (Supplied)

New Zealand's largest kiwi hatchery has welcomed its latest chick into existence - with the newborn bird fittingly receiving the name Tail End Charlie.

The egg, discovered by a Department of Conservation (DoC) staff member in Tongariro, is part of a clutch from the 2015/16 season - and it had been around so long that employees from the Kiwi Encounter hatchery had it sitting beside the first eggs from the 2016/17 season.

Kiwi chick's ridiculously late hatch 'amazing'

(Rainbow Springs' Kiwi Encounter / Supplied)

The hatchery's kiwi husbandry manager, Claire Travers, says she cannot think of any kiwi that has arrived later than Charlie.

"It's amazing that we were incubating an egg from the last season alongside two eggs from the start of the new 2016/2017 season," she said.

"Why it's so late, I'm unsure."

Kiwi hatching season officially starts in September and generally runs through until June the following year.

Tail End Charlie hatched more than a month after the season came to an end.

Newshub.