Let's head to the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand and meet the world's only alpine parrot - Kea.
Kea
The kea is a large parrot about 48 cm (19 in) long and weighs between 800 grams (1.8 lb) and 1 kilogram (2.2 lb). It has mostly olive-green plumage with a grey beak having a long, narrow, curved upper beak. The adult has dark-brown irises, and the cere, eyerings, and legs are grey. It has orange feathers on the undersides of its wings. The feathers on the sides of its face are dark olive-brown, feathers on its back and rump are orange-red, and some of the outer wing are dull-blue. It has a short, broad, bluish-green tail with a black tip. Feather shafts project at the tip of the tail and the undersides of the inner tail feathers have yellow-orange transverse stripes. The male is about 5% longer than the female, and the male's upper beak is 12–14% longer than the female's. Juveniles generally resemble adults, but have yellow eyerings and cere, an orange-yellow lower beak, and grey-yellow legs.
An omnivore, the kea feeds on more than 40 plant species, beetle larvae, other birds (including shearwater chicks), and mammals (including sheep and rabbits). It has been observed breaking open shearwater nests to feed on the chicks after hearing the chicks in their nests. The kea has also taken advantage of human garbage and "gifts" of food.
The kea's notorious urge to explore and manipulate makes this bird both a pest for residents and an attraction for tourists. Called "the clown of the mountains", it will investigate backpacks, boots, skis, snowboards, and even cars, often causing damage or flying off with smaller items. Kea have been kept as pets before being protected, but rarely, since they were difficult to capture and destructive when in captivity.
Distribution
The kea is one of ten endemic parrot species in New Zealand. The kea ranges from lowland river valleys and coastal forests of the South Island's west coast up to alpine regions of the South Island such as Arthur's Pass and Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. It is closely associated throughout its range with the southern beech forests in the alpine ridge.
Apart from occasional vagrants, kea today are not found in the North Island. Subfossil kea bones have been found in sand dunes at Mataikona in the eastern Wairarapa, Poukawa near Hastings, and Waitomo, indicating that they ranged through lowland forest over much of the North Island until the arrival of Polynesian settlers about 750 years ago. The current distribution of kea reflects the effects of mammalian predators, including humans, which have driven them out of lowland forest into the mountains
Conservation
In the 1970s, the kea received partial protection after a census counted only 5,000 birds. The government agreed to investigate any reports of problem birds and have them removed from the land. In 1986 it was given full protection under the Wildlife Act 1953.
Despite being classified as Nationally Endangered in the New Zealand Threat Classification System and endangered in the IUCN Red List and protected by law, kea are still deliberately shot. For example, in the late 1990s, a Fox Glacier resident killed 33 kea in the glacier car park and in 2008, two kea were shot in Arthur's Pass and stapled to a sign. Kea deaths due to traffic have prompted the NZ Transport Agency to install signs to help raise awareness, and to encourage people to slow down if necessary.
A citizen science project called the "Kea Database" was launched in 2017 that allows for the recording of kea observations to an online database. If the recorded kea are banded, it is possible to match up observations with individual named birds, enabling the monitoring of the habits and behaviour of individual kea.
That's it for today. See you all next time.
Join our Discord channel
Follow us in Twitter
Follow us in VK