It’s all getting a bit too busy for blogging! The end of April is always my favourite time and at the moment it is the movement of Teal and other dabbling ducks that is occupying me with the never-ending searching for something rare in their midst. Yesterday I was at Nordre Øyeren. At this time […]
Tag: kea
Beak fitness: New Zealand develops roadside gym for endangered keas
Bird experts in New Zealand have designed a special gym for the country’s playful alpine parrot to keep them away from some of the nation’s most dangerous roads. For the last couple of years contractors working on the road to Milford Sound in the South Island have captured footage of keas moving their road cones […]
These parrots can make other parrots ‘laugh’ – a first !
Forget the laughing kookaburra – kea are the birds that really tickle each other’s funny bones. The highly intelligent parrot has a specific call, that – like human laughter – puts other parrots that hear it in a good mood. This makes the kea the first known non-mammal to show contagious emotion, joining the ranks […]
The hunt for the world’s only alpine (and carnivorous) parrot
You need to be sneaky if you want to catch a Kea in the wild. Kimberley Collins (Forest & Bird, BirdLife in New Zealand) goes searching for the world’s only alpine parrot in Nelson Lakes National Park, New Zealand. As I looked up at the 1300m peak looming over me, I instantly regretted not preparing […]
New Zealand kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, faces extinction
The world’s only alpine parrot is at threat of extinction in New Zealand as numbers plummet in the face of threats from non-native predators and human development. The kea is the world’s only mountain-dwelling parrot and also one of the most intelligent species of bird known for their playfulness and novelty-seeking nature. The birds, which […]