Four-wheel drivers are thought to be contributing to the decline of a native New Zealand bird

An Auckland Council survey has detected only four pipit bird's on the Kaipara and Tawharanui peninsulas.

Dunes on beaches including Piha and Muriwai are typically great habitats for the small, brown and white bird.

Auckland Council's Senior Ecologist Melinda Rixon says human activity's pushing them out of the areas they inhabit.

She says these environments are very fragile, so the pipits can't withstand the disturbance and destruction that four-wheel driving puts on those environments.