Is it time for the Kea

Brent Barrett | Aug 29, 2010

There is little sense in looking for whales in the desert, or ghosts in the daytime, so why am I constantly entering the coastal forest looking for an alpine parrot?  Beats me, I guess its like that chicken crossing the road “because its there” and certainly within 200m from my coastal house live the worlds only entirely alpine (but not always) parrot.  It is here in the lowland forests of the remote west coast of the South Island of New Zealand that some of these confused birds make their nests and live out their lives.  Sure the teenagers head to the mountains for a spell but they usually wise up and return to raise a family in our very own temporate rain forest.  For those who have ever visited New Zealand you only know half the story of our clean green image.  Head into the forest from the road verge and within 15m you will stop seeing anything remotely civilised, no road, power lines, nothing for the next 300km.  The forest is so thick that I often loose my volunteer on the other side of a tree.  Some days I wish our department didn’t have a set policy on use of machettes.  However having fallen more times than I can remeber perhaps it is not a bad plan.  So within this wonderfull green filled, moss covered, waterfall emersed forest the lowland Kea digs orchid bulbs, scraps grubs from rotten logs and sucks sugar from flowers. 

Then around July-August they decide that its time to make more of themselves, we scientist call this ‘breeding’.  I think humans do it too.  Then the fun begins, well for him that is.  The poor female will now spend the next four months underground in a wet muddy hole raising what brood the predators allow her to keep.  Four weeks sitting on eggs then three entire months cuddling a baby parrot, thats her future.  Leaving the nest to conduct toiletries and to be fed by the male (who is actually scared of the littlest chicks).  That poor male is busy feeding himself, her and the brood (up to three in the wild).  That means he has to gather food for five birds every day for three months.  Kea are surprising for parrots as they are ground nesters, not a commonly known fact.  In the mountains they use rock crevices but in the lowland forests where I work they predominantly nest in large holes in the roots of huge trees.  It is the location of these nests that occupy my every waking thought for the four months of the breeding season.  But heck, more on that later.