Kaka, New Zealand

by Venetia Featherstone-Witty

Title

Kaka, New Zealand

Artist

Venetia Featherstone-Witty

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

When I was on Stewart Island in New Zealand last year I stayed in a home where these delightful parrots came to visit every day. We were able to give them peanuts by hand. They are very intelligent and sometimes quite comical as well. The New Zealand kaka, also known as kākā, (Nestor meridionalis) is a New Zealand parrot endemic to the native forests of New Zealand.The New Zealand kaka is a medium sized parrot, measuring 45 cm (18 in) in length and weighing from 390 to 560 g (14 to 20 oz), with an average of 452 g (0.996 lb). It is closely related to the Kea, but has darker plumage and is more arboreal. The forehead and crown are greyish-white and the nape is greyish-brown. The neck and abdomen are more reddish, while the wings are more brownish. 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.This group of parrots is unusual, retaining more primitive features lost in most other parrots, because it split off from the rest around 100 million years ago.
FEATURED 11/1/14 in "Images That Excite You"
FEATURED 11/10/14 in "Wildlife One A Day"
FEATURED 11/30/14 in "FAA Portraits, Birds"
FEATURED 1/15/15 in "For the love of Birds"
FEATURED 1/16/15 in "3 a Day AAA Images"
FEATURED 2/17/16 in "A Birding Group - Wings"
FEATURED 7/8/17 in "Poetic Poultry"
FEATURED 7/30/18 in "Animal Photographs"
FEATURED 2/5/24 in "Real Beautiful Birds"
FEATURED 2/10/24 in "The Wonder of Wings"

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October 28th, 2014

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