New Zealand has confirmed a second case of H5N1 bird flu, marking a quiet but consequential shift from readiness to ongoing management of a virus that officials now regard as a permanent presence in the landscape. The threat moves not through farms alone but through hawks and raptors, through scavenging and migration, through the wild corridors that connect one region to another — making it as much a conservation challenge as an agricultural one. Authorities are responding with vaccination programs for endangered native species, temporary housing guidance for free-range flocks, and a surveilla