Pictures just released show kiwi may not deserve their timid image.
An infrared camera at the Zealandia bird sanctuary in Wellington captured a kiwi destroying a robin's nest and pecking the chicks, which later died.
But the kiwi may have just been being territorial.
"It's just a kiwi satisfying its own behaviour to keep away other kiwis from the area," says Rogan Colburn, a kiwi researcher with the Department of Conservation. "Because the robin has brought in kiwi feathers it just confused the kiwi – they can't see the nest but they can smell the nest."
Robins often pick kiwi feathers from entrances to burrows to line their nests, but instances of kiwi disturbing other nesting birds have never been documented.
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