Doc plans to distribute the poison in a 57,000ha section of Makarora later this year as part of its Battle for our Birds.
Conservation Minister Maggie Barry last week announced 720,000ha of New Zealand land would be targeted this year to protect native birds from predators.
In Makarora last week, Doc scientist Graeme Elliot led an information evening about the plans.
He said Doc predicted a large rise in mice and therefore stoats in the area due to heavy beech tree flowering, which happens every two to six years.
This would have a huge impact on the yellowhead bird, or mohua, in the area, he said.
"We've got a small mohua population hanging on by the skin of their teeth. If we don't do anything they might go extinct this time, or it might be next time.
"They're slaughtered by stoats when stoats are abundant.''
The area was chosen because it was a large, representative site with a highly rated ecosystem, he said.
There were no plans to drop the poison in the Matukituki Valley at this stage but it was a possibility, he said.
One meeting attendee said 1080 caused "excruciating pain'' to the birds that ate it.
She questioned why Doc could not introduce large-scale trapping the way Tuhoe and other groups did at Te Urewera National Park.
Dr Elliot said this would be "incredibly expensive'' and even if the department could afford it, it was likely to be impossible on the Makarora terrain.
"We've got places where we use traps and we use poison and bait stations, but we mostly do that in accessible country where it's easy to get around.''
Last year, Doc dropped bait at Makarora, but its poison drop was cancelled due to snowfall.
