Ngapuhi elder Sonny Tau will be sentenced in the Auckland District Court this afternoon, on two charges of possessing and hunting kereru.

Sonny Tau previously pleaded guilty to the charges laid by the Department of Conservation.

He hasn't entered a plea on a third charge, laid by police, which can carry a sentence of up to seven years in prison.

Sonny Tau was found to be carrying a number of dead kereru, a endemic wood pigeon, at Invercargill Airport in June last year.

He initially denied hunting them, but later pleaded guilty to that charge.

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