Weka sightings have become more common this year and ornithologist Bruce McKinlay said there appeared to be four birds in the city and all up there had been five events and 80 sightings of the bird since they were first spotted four years ago.
The vast majority of these sightings were made this year with one bird spotted in the St Clair area and the rest in the Normanby area.
Now a weka chick has been seen with two adult birds.
The chick was small — like an orange on legs — and had no feathers, Mr McKinlay said, from the photo he had viewed.
"They would appear to be in a family group. It is with its parents and is rummaging around with its parents," he said.
There would have been four eggs laid, so to get one chick was good as their survival rate was not great, he said.
Whether that would be termed a colony of the bird or would lead to more chicks was hard to say, he said.
There were lots of predators out there such as stoats and ferrets along with dogs not on a lead.
He said the weka could have originally been brought in by accident or deliberately as that was the only feasible way the weka could have originally made its way to Dunedin.
The flightless bird was found in Fiordland and West Coast and that was too far to walk.
It was first seen in St David St in North Dunedin in 2021 and that suggested it had been smuggled in by a student as a prank, he said.
