Subfossil remains of whiteheads have been found on the North Island and the species was still very widespread when European settlement of New Zealand began in the 1840s. However, soon after, they began to decline as a result of both the widespread clearance of lowland forests for agriculture and the predation by several species of mammalian predators introduced by Europeans, including several species of rodents and mustelids. Such introduced species remain a problem for many whitehead populations today, as they both compete with them for food and prey upon the birds themselves. As a result, the species has experienced local extinctions of many of its populations throughout the North Island, particularly in its northern regions; whiteheads disappeared from Northland in the 1870s and from the greater Auckland area in the 1880s. They also disappeared from Great Barrier Island in the 1950s.