Kākā
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the bird. For other uses of Kaka, see Kaka (disambiguation).
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| Nestor meridionalis (Gmelin, 1788) |
The Kākā, Nestor meridionalis, is a parrot native to the forests of New Zealand. There are two subspecies, the North Island Kākā, Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis, and the South Island Kākā, N. m. meridionalis. The name Kākā comes from the Māori language and is the general Polynesian term for a parrot.
The Kākā is a medium sized parrot, around 45 cm in length and weighing about 550 g, and is closely related to the Kea, but has darker plumage and is more arboreal. Both sub-species have a strongly patterned brown/green/grey plumage with orange and scarlet flashes under the wings; color variants which show red to yellow coloration especially on the breast are sometimes found. It lives in the lowland and mid-altitude forest. Its strongholds are currently the offshore reserves of Kapiti Island, Codfish Island and Hauturu/Little Barrier Island.
The Kākā feeds on fruits, berries, seeds, flowers, buds, nectar and invertebrates. It has a brush tongue with which it feeds on nectar, and it uses its strong beak to dig out the grubs of the longhorn beetle.
The Kākā is considered vulnerable (CITES II). It has greatly declined, in part from habitat loss, in part because of introduced wasps and possums, which compete with the Kākā for honeydew, which is excreted by scale insects. Research has shown that this honeydew is very important for breeding birds, especially those breeding in southern beech forests. The difficult nature of controlling the wasps makes the Kākā's future very uncertain. A closely related species, Nestor productus, the Norfolk Island Kākā, became extinct in 1851.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2005). Nestor meridionalis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is endangered
