Five Peregrine Wines staff and associates, five Doc rangers and Mark Peychers, skipper of Southern Wind, released the endangered forest-dwelling birds on the uninhabited 480ha Bauza Island, at the head of Doubtful Sound.
"We captured them on Breaksea Island, one of the main nurseries to build up the population," Peregrine Wines co-owner and marketing director Greg Hay said.
"It's a piece of pristine Fiordland bush and far away from the ferrets and stoats."
The group split into three and captured the ground-nesting saddlebacks from March 6 to 8.
The inquisitive birds responded to recorded saddleback calls and were caught in fine canopy netting.
The birds were held and fed in a temporary aviary and each was banded with the date and location of capture.
New chicks hatched on Bauza Island would be conspicuous by not wearing a band.
"On March 9, we collected all the birds and put them into four boxes and flew them, using Southern Lakes Helicopters, up the Fiordland coast to Bauza Island where we released the birds on the northwestern corner, on a beautiful sunny day," Mr Hay said.
"Those birds will be the base population for future saddleback breeding on Bauza Island.
"The idea is a variety of birds will be released to replicate, as close as possible, what would have been the natural bird population down there."
It was the third translocation in Fiordland with the support of Peregrine Wines.
The winery has committed to at least 10 years of sponsorship of the Fiordland Conservation Trust, Mr Hay said.
"Our wine brands are named after some of New Zealand's most endangered birds and we want these birds to be around for generations to come."
