Red-crowned Parakeet

The Red-crowned Parakeet, known in Māori as kākāriki, is a slim, brilliant emerald-green parrot native to New Zealand and its scatter of outlying islands. A crimson forehead and crown, plus a crimson stripe running back from each eye, give the bird its name and make it unmistakable among the country's parrots. The word kākāriki simply means green, and it is shared by several closely related New Zealand parakeets.

Once widespread across the mainland, the species has declined badly there under the twin pressures of forest clearance and introduced mammalian predators such as rats, stoats and cats. Yet it remains genuinely common on many predator-free offshore and subantarctic islands, where it can be one of the most conspicuous birds, chattering through the canopy and feeding boldly on the ground and along the shore. Because of this island stronghold it is listed as Least Concern globally even as mainland populations remain thin. It is also a frequent star of New Zealand's conservation translocations, being reintroduced to sanctuaries and cleared islands as habitats are made safe again.

The kākāriki is mostly bright emerald green, distinctly paler and more yellowish below, with a crimson crown, a crimson band running through and behind the eye, and small crimson patches on each side of the rump. The outer flight feathers flash violet-blue, most visible in flight. The sexes look alike, though males average larger with a noticeably heavier bill. In dense forest the bird is often heard before it is seen, betrayed by its rapid chattering call as it feeds overhead.

Male vs. female

Males and females share the same green-and-crimson pattern, so plumage alone rarely separates them. The most reliable difference is size and build: males are on average larger and heavier, with a distinctly bigger, deeper bill and a slightly bulkier head. Females are marginally smaller and finer-billed. In a bonded pair seen together the size gap can be obvious, but a lone bird is often impossible to sex in the field with confidence. Behaviour offers hints during breeding, since only the female incubates and broods, so a bird slipping repeatedly into a cavity is very likely the hen.

Juveniles

Young Red-crowned Parakeets closely resemble adults but look duller and less crisply marked. The crimson of the crown and eye-stripe is typically paler, smaller in extent and less sharply defined, and the overall green is a softer, more muted tone. The bill of a juvenile is often paler with a pinkish or flesh-coloured base before it darkens to the adult bluish-grey. The tail is shorter in freshly fledged birds and grows to full length over the following weeks. Juveniles reach adult appearance within a few months and can breed in their first year under good conditions.

The Red-crowned Parakeet is a vocal, chattering bird. Its signature call is a rapid, rolling ki-ki-ki-ki-ki, a bright staccato babble that is often the first sign of a bird feeding in the canopy overhead. This chatter carries well through forest and is given both in flight and while perched, sometimes rising into an excited, scolding rattle when the bird is disturbed or when several birds interact.

Away from the loud chatter, pair members keep in touch with softer, more musical contact notes, a subdued conversational murmur exchanged at close range while feeding together. The species does not have an elaborate song in the songbird sense; its repertoire is a set of chattering, chirruping and clucking parrot calls rather than the tuneful phrases of a thrush or warbler.

The Red-crowned Parakeet is native to New Zealand, occurring on the main islands, on many offshore islands, and out to subantarctic groups such as the Auckland and Antipodes islands. It occupies native forest, coastal scrub, tussock and low island vegetation, and readily uses the ground and shoreline as well as the canopy. Historically it ranged widely across mainland North and South Islands.

Today the distribution is strikingly uneven. On the predator-rich mainland the species is scarce and patchy, hanging on mainly in larger forest tracts and fenced sanctuaries. On predator-free islands, by contrast, it can be abundant and tame, and it has been re-established on numerous cleared islands and mainland reserves through conservation translocations. The birds are largely resident and non-migratory, though they may wander locally in response to food supply, and island populations can fluctuate with seasonal abundance of fruit and seed.

The kākāriki has a broad, opportunistic diet that helps explain its success on small islands. It eats seeds, fruits, berries, flowers, buds, shoots and leaves, taking whatever the season offers, and it also readily consumes invertebrates such as caterpillars, scale insects and other small prey. This willingness to eat both plant and animal food makes it more flexible than many strictly frugivorous or granivorous parrots.

Foraging is equally versatile. Red-crowned Parakeets feed high in the canopy but also spend a great deal of time on the ground, hopping through leaf litter and grass in search of fallen seed and invertebrates. On seabird islands they forage along the shoreline and among colonies, exploiting the rich pickings there, and they will strip seeding grasses and low herbs in the open. This ground-feeding habit, unusual for a forest parrot, is one reason the species is so vulnerable to introduced ground predators on the mainland.

Red-crowned Parakeets are cavity nesters. They most often use holes and hollows in trees, but they are notably adaptable and will also nest in crevices in cliffs and banks, in gaps among tree roots, in dense vegetation, in abandoned seabird burrows and in artificial sites and nest boxes. The female alone prepares the nest chamber, lining it with wood chips and debris, and she does all of the incubation while the male brings her food.

Clutches are large for a parrot, commonly around five to nine white eggs, and incubation lasts roughly 23 days. The eggs hatch asynchronously, so a brood contains chicks of noticeably different sizes. The male continues to provision the female and later the young throughout the nestling period. In good conditions, especially in food-rich island habitats, an experienced pair can raise two broods, and occasionally three, in a single season, giving the species real capacity to rebuild numbers where predators are absent.

The Red-crowned Parakeet is a New Zealand endemic, so for most people the goal is not attracting one to a backyard but knowing where and how to see one in the wild. The good news is that on the right islands and reserves the birds can be abundant, tame and easy to watch.

• Visit predator-free island sanctuaries such as Tiritiri Matangi, Kapiti Island or Zealandia in Wellington, where reintroduced kākāriki are often numerous and approachable.
• Listen for the chatter first, the rapid ki-ki-ki-ki call usually reveals a feeding flock in the canopy before you spot the green plumage against green leaves.
• Scan the ground and forest floor, unlike many parrots this species feeds low down, so watch open grassy patches, tracksides and shorelines.
• Check seeding grasses, flowering flax and fruiting shrubs, concentrations of food draw birds into the open where they are easier to see.
• On seabird islands look along the coastal fringe and colony edges, where kākāriki forage among the burrows.
• Go early in the day when the birds are most active and vocal, and move quietly since island birds, though tame, still slip away when rushed.

• Yellow-crowned Parakeet: A close New Zealand relative with a yellow crown and only a narrow red frontal band above the bill
• Orange-fronted Parakeet: A rare New Zealand kākāriki with a pale orange frontal band, very similar in shape and size
• Antipodes Parakeet: A larger all-green Cyanoramphus parakeet endemic to the remote Antipodes Islands