The cause of power cut that plunged thousands of homes into darkness on Monday night has been revealed: a wood pigeon.

Homes across north Tāmaki Makaurau – including those in Warkworth, Tāwharanui, Matakana, Leigh and Puhoi – were in a flap when an “unplanned” power outage struck as temperatures outside began to plummet.

According to a Vector Electricity spokesperson, crews flew into action when the power outage began at 6.56pm.

Power was restored to most areas by 8.30pm.

“Investigations today revealed the cause of last night’s outage to be a wood pigeon coming into contact with an overhead line insulator,” the spokesperson said.

Stuff is unaware of the condition of the wood pigeon.

“We understand that power outages are frustrating, especially during winter, and thank our customers for their patience and understanding while we worked to get their power back on.”

Warkworth resident Ben Carmichael previously told Stuff the lights went off at about 6.45pm.

“We checked the Vector outage app straight away, but there was nothing there – we were, quite literally, left in the dark as to what was going on,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael, his wife and their 11-year-old daughter had “thankfully” already had dinner, but were left with just candles for warmth for almost two hours.

“It’s really not good when its 9C outside and there’s no power to keep you warm.

“Their power outage app didn’t even update to say it was being looked into, so we were preparing for a night of no power,” he said.

At 8.20pm, power came back on for the Carmichael family, but the surrounding houses were still in darkness.

According to a spokesperson for Vector Electricity, the outage affected the Warkworth and Snells Beach area.

“Multiple crews were deployed to visually inspect the lines as a safety precaution before restoring power to most of the area.”