The Kea-By JessieJ

The Kea

The Kea is a South Island bird. The Kaka is a North Island bird. They are very close cousins.

The Kea is mainly olive green in colour and its most eye catching features are the bright scarlet under wings and the red rump. The beak is slimmer than that of the Kaka, the upper jaw only slightly larger than the Kaka. Their beak is black is black on the top and yellow on the bottom.

While most parrots are vegetarian, the Kea is unusual in taking a varied diet in that includes fruit, seeds, buds, leaves, nectar, insects and even decaying flesh of animals.

Kea bird chicks scurry along the ground fastly, but walk like a human when walking slowly. They flay and glide through the air swiftly. In forests and mountain trees they jump from tree to tree.

Keas habitats are in nests of twigs and leaves, they are built in rock crevices. They can also live in powdery wood in rotten logs. They mainly live in the Alpines of mountains in the South Island.

Their breeding is from July to January (most commonly in October). Two to four white eggs are laid and incubated (sat on), mainly by the female, for about three weeks. The grey, downy chicks fledge and leave the nest after thirteen or fourteen weeks.

The call”keaa” in unusually made when flying g though it has a number of softer calls. Keas can live to twenty years old. A gathering or group of Kea is called a circus. They are very mischievous and can break open a car door. Keas are one of the smartest birds in the whole world and that is why I love Keas.

By Jessie J