Kākā - World Parrot Day

I'm a day late but who's counting? Yesterday was World Parrot Day (it's May 31st every year). Kākā are also one of the five birds in the World Parrot Trust's Parrot of the Year competition. You'll find plenty of information about this species at NZ Birds and plenty more on Wikipedia.

I stopped near the kākā aviary on the way out of the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary on Saturday, and three of the six kākā turned up. (All the kākā are now free birds, the aviary has been opened up; the birds can return for some supplementary food or nostalgia if they feel like it.) They were snacking at the feeders (eating apple etc) but mostly eating wild food they found in the canopy or on tree trunks. I took far too many photos, here are a few.

Snacking on whatever may be in dead branches. Bugs, probably.

This guy has grabbed a piece of apple from one of the feeders (which is behind him) and is sitting on the viewing fence. That's the fence separating the feeders from the humans; it has viewing holes so that humans can observe the birds without being noticed. This bird seems like he couldn't care less who watches him eat. He's sitting on the fence with his apple looking down on the human viewers (in this case, it was only me).

Important note: The supplementary diet for these birds is very carefully controlled. Feeding kākā the wrong food is extremely bad for them. If you pay these birds a visit, please do not feed them anything at all, ever.

Here he is cleaning his beak on on the aviary roof after snacking.

This guy has spotted some tasty honeydew. He puts his upper beak over it then licks it up with his tongue.

This guy is chewing the top of a dead trunk for bugs. They can remove quite a lot of rotten wood quite quickly.

Peeling off the bark and licking up what's under each piece while he holds it. I'm a little unsure what he's eating, perhaps scale insects or perhaps some sap? (If anyone reading this knows, answer in the comments at the bottom of this post.)

There was something pretty tasty under this bark. These two spent quite some time there nibbling on it, peeling bits off then licking under each piece, then dropping it and grabbing another piece.

They could be snacking anywhere in the forest but chose to to feed together and share whatever was there. Dining as a social event.

They weren't transferring food here, this was just friendly beak-touching.

A couple more feeding / nibbling shots, then a couple of mugshots.