The kiwi, New Zealand’s sacred national bird, vanished from the hills around Wellington more than a century ago. Now the capital’s residents are waging an unlikely citizen campaign to return the endangered flightless birds to the city. “They are a part of who we are and our sense of belonging here,” said Paul Ward, founder of the Capital Kiwi Project, a charitable trust. “But they’ve been gone from these hills for well over a century and we decided as Wellingtonians that wasn’t right.” A staff member of a conservation organisation carries a kiwi bird during an event at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 28, 2026. © Charlotte Graham-McLay, AP On a hill wreathed in mist above the dark sea that runs between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, Ward and others crossed rugged farmland late on Tuesday night, carrying seven crates in silence by dim red torchlight. Inside each one nestled a kiwi, including the 250th bird relocated to Wellington since the Capital Kiwi Project began. The kiwi gives New Zealanders the name …