Coccidiosis in hihi is a serious disease capable of causing mortalities in juvenile and adult birds in captive situations. Treatment and control of the disease will be difficult as the extraintestinal stages of the organism are likely to be refractile to oral treatment.

The aim of the study was to obtain preliminary data on the occurrence of helminths in New Zealand endemic passerines. We also examined a small number of non-endemic native and introduced birds. Altogether, of 388 samples of faeces or dead birds, 5.4% contained evidence of trematode infections, 7.7% of cestode infections and 1.5% of Capillaria. Trematodes found in the gall bladders of saddlebacks and one song thrush were tentatively identified as belonging to the family Dicrocoeliidae but definitive identifications have yet to be made. The taxonomic position of the trematodes found in tui is unknown. However, these are the first records of trematodes in New Zealand endemic passerines. The presence of cestode infections in saddlebacks, tui and the North Island robin, and of Capillaria in tui, appears not to have been recorded previously.