Rotoroa Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf is to have kiwi released on it.

Three North Island brown kiwi chicks, hatched at Auckland Zoo from eggs collected from Te Mata in the Coromandel, are being released today.

More chicks are due to be released next month.

It's hoped the move will boost the population of the rarest of the four distinct types of brown kiwi.

Rotoroa was for a century the site of a drug and rehabilitation centre run by the Salvation Army.