The Kakapo Recovery Programme is going hi-tech this season as the increasing number of breeding females is likely to outgrow the conservation staff available to look after them and their nests.
The kakapo - the world's rarest parrot - is found only in New Zealand. Since 1995, the programme to restore its numbers has increased its population from 51 to 122 birds.
Rimu trees on Codfish Island, off Stewart Island, and Anchor Island in Fiordland are now fruiting, signalling a bumper breeding season.
Scientist Ron Moorhouse says the recovery team is hoping for at least as good a year as 2008, when 33 chicks hatched.
Dr Moorhouse says in the past, the programme has relied heavily on human nest minders.
But this season on Anchor Island, electronic equipment will detect whether or not the mother is on the nest and it will send an email to Department of Conservation officers set up on the island's coast.
