New Zealand Kaka

The New Zealand Kaka is a big, rowdy, rust-and-olive forest parrot, the lowland cousin of the alpine kea and one of the most charismatic birds in the country's native woods. At rest it looks a plain olive-brown, but the moment it opens its wings it flashes brilliant orange-red and crimson across the underwing and belly, a splash of color that seems to appear from nowhere as the bird wheels between trees. It is loud, curious, and endlessly acrobatic, hanging upside down, swinging from branches, and prising bark apart with a heavy hooked bill.

Kaka were once abundant from coast to mountain forest across both main islands. Forest clearance and, above all, introduced predators such as stoats, possums, and rats stripped them from most of the mainland, taking eggs, chicks, and the females that sit tight on the nest. Today the bird's story is one of hard-won recovery: on predator-free islands and inside fenced sanctuaries their numbers have climbed, and in a few cities, most famously Wellington, Kaka have come screeching back into suburban skies for the first time in generations.

A large, heavy-bodied brown parrot with a strongly hooked grey bill and a short, square tail. Perched, it reads as mostly olive-brown with a greyish crown; in flight or when it lifts its wings it reveals vivid orange-red and crimson underwing and belly patches that transform the bird. Two subspecies exist: the North Island Kaka and the slightly larger, brighter South Island Kaka. Size, the hooked bill, and the sudden red flashes rule out almost anything else in New Zealand forest.

Male vs. female

Male and female Kaka look alike in color and pattern, so plumage alone will not sex them. The most reliable difference is the bill: males have a noticeably longer, deeper upper mandible, while females have a shorter, more strongly curved bill. Males also average a little larger and heavier overall. In the field these differences are subtle and usually only obvious when two birds feed side by side, so most watchers simply enjoy them as Kaka without trying to tell the sexes apart.

Juveniles

Young Kaka resemble adults but tend to look slightly duller and more uniform, and they often show a paler, more yellowish cere and eye-ring and less brilliant underwing color at first. Freshly fledged birds stay dependent on their parents for weeks after leaving the nest hollow, following the adults through the canopy and begging loudly with wheezing, insistent calls. Because breeding is tied to heavy seeding years, family groups of noisy juveniles are far more obvious in some seasons than others.

The Kaka is one of the loudest voices in New Zealand forest, and much of its 'song' is really a rich vocabulary of shrieks, whistles, and chatter. The signature sound is a harsh, ringing ka-aa or grating skraaak, often given in flight, mixed with musical fluting whistles and softer, more melodic warbles when birds are relaxed. Flocks feeding together keep up a running conversation of clicks, mutters, and squabbling notes.

Kaka are most vocal at dawn and dusk, and moonlit nights can trigger bursts of calling too. The contrast between their grating screeches and their surprisingly sweet, organ-like whistles is distinctive; once learned, the sound carries a long way through the trees and is often the first clue that Kaka are overhead before you ever see the flash of red under a wing.

The Kaka is endemic to New Zealand, a bird of tall native forest on the North and South Islands and a scatter of offshore islands. The North Island subspecies holds on in large forest blocks such as those of the central North Island, Te Urewera, and Northland, while the South Island form ranges through West Coast, Fiordland, and Nelson forests and is a stronghold on some southern islands. The best populations are now on predator-free islands like Kapiti, Little Barrier (Hauturu), Codfish (Whenua Hou), and Stewart Island (Rakiura), plus fenced mainland sanctuaries.

Kaka wander widely in search of seasonal food and are not strongly territorial outside breeding, so numbers at any one forest can swell or thin through the year. The most striking recent change is their return to cities: birds spilling out of Wellington's Zealandia sanctuary now range across suburban gardens and parks, and Kaka have re-established a visible presence around Wellington after being effectively absent for decades.

The Kaka has a broad, opportunistic diet and the tools to exploit it. It laps nectar and pollen from native flowers such as rata, kowhai, flax, and pohutukawa using a brush-tipped tongue, eats fruit and berries, and cracks and grinds seeds with its powerful bill. It also gouges bark and rotten wood to reach wood-boring beetle larvae (huhu grubs among them), and scars living trees to make sap wells that it returns to feed on, sometimes leaving distinctive lines of bleeding bark.

Because so much of this food, especially seed and fruit, comes in irregular boom-and-bust cycles tied to forest 'mast' years, the Kaka's fortunes swing with the trees. In good seeding years birds are well fed and breed strongly; in lean years both food and breeding drop away. Honeydew produced by scale insects on southern beech forest is another important energy source for South Island birds.

Kaka nest in cavities, usually deep hollows in old, large living or dead trees, sometimes several metres down inside a trunk. The female lays around four white eggs on a bed of wood chips and does all the incubating and early brooding herself, while the male feeds her at the nest entrance and later helps provision the chicks. This division of labor is exactly what makes them so vulnerable: a female sitting deep in a hollow cannot escape a stoat, and predators take incubating females, eggs, and chicks alike.

Breeding is strongly linked to food supply and often skips lean years, with the biggest breeding efforts following heavy seed and fruit crops. Chicks spend a long time in the nest and remain dependent after fledging, so a single successful season demands months of abundant food. Without sustained predator control, mainland nests fail so often that populations cannot replace themselves, which is why intensive management is central to the species' survival.

The Kaka is a wild forest parrot, not a backyard visitor, so 'attracting' one really means going where they thrive. The good news is that they are loud, active, and increasingly reachable, and a few well-chosen reserves make sightings almost reliable. Feeding wild Kaka is discouraged because it can cause metabolic bone disease in chicks and unhealthy dependence, so the aim is to see them in good habitat rather than lure them in.

• Visit fenced mainland sanctuaries, above all Wellington's Zealandia, where Kaka are common, confiding, and often seen and heard within minutes.
• Take a day trip to a predator-free island reserve such as Kapiti Island, Tiritiri Matangi, or Ulva Island off Stewart Island, where Kaka are a highlight.
• Explore large native forest tracts like Fiordland, the West Coast beech forests, Pureora, and Te Urewera, and listen for their ringing calls at the canopy.
• Go at dawn or dusk, when Kaka are most vocal and active, and watch open sky above the forest for birds flying between feeding trees.
• Look and listen during good flowering or seeding seasons (spring through autumn), when nectar and fruit concentrate birds and family groups are noisiest.
• Support predator control and sanctuaries, since every Kaka you see on the mainland exists because stoats, possums, and rats are being held back.

• Kea: Its alpine relative, olive-green and famously bold, living in South Island mountains rather than lowland forest.
• Kakapo: A much larger, flightless, nocturnal moss-green parrot, critically endangered and confined to predator-free islands.
• Australian King Parrot: A large forest parrot across the Tasman, but bright red and green rather than brown with hidden red flashes.