About 24 people conducted our annual kākāriki karaka population count over two days this week in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary (more about that in a later post, but the short answer is that we counted a record number of birds and concluded the population continues to grow at a steady pace). On Day 2 (Wednesday, 2026-09-02) about a dozen of us arrived at the top of the Sanctuary by vehicle. We were immediately greeted by the unmistakable "kee-aaaaaaaa" of New Zealand's famous alpine parrot, the kea. Nobody present had any recollection of ever seeing a kea in the Sanctuary, they tend to live at higher altitudes. However, juveniles have been known to go exploring while young, including visiting lower regions, before (hopefully) returning home to their natural environment: the mountains.
Needless to say, we were all a bit distracted from our kākāriki-karaka-counting task and watched (and photographed) our surprise visitor for a while. Out came my camera of course... The kea came and went a few times, and I was lucky enough to get some of him in flight.
(This bird had leg bands, and was identified as a male bird banded last year near Murchison.)
Here he is returning from one of his short trips away from us. His wing undersides are in shade here.
It was 'golden hour' (shortly after sunrise) and the sun was able to get under his wing highlighting the gorgeous feathers hidden when perched.
He landed in a tree top for a while.
He left. Here he is returning. No sun under the wing this time.
He landed on a dead trunk. It was a windy day and the wind under his feathers seems to have given him a mane.
He took off again, I was a bit slow to follow and only just got him in this frame (his perch is on the right).
Then I caught up with my panning for a couple more shots.
Next perch.
He's about to take off again.
He closed his eyes for a time here. I'm not sure if he was just slow-blinking, or instinctively closing his eyes for protection while flying through foliage.
Note how he's just plowing through the soft foliage here.
He's grabbing onto foliage on the way past.
Although it was tempting to stay and watch our new friend, we decided to enter the Sanctuary and head down the spur track, where we would split off into pairs and start counting kākāriki karaka. Our friend the kea didn't like being abandoned and followed us down the track deeper into the Sanctuary. (Light is a lot more challenging here, it was early morning in a dark forest. I was commonly shooting at 40 - 64,000 ISO.)
A few portraits.
And lastly, a bunch of mugshots.
There's a funny ending to this story. The kea followed a couple of the surveyors for about three hours, and made a habit of landing on the head of one lucky (or was it unlucky?) volunteer! He chewed boots, packs etc as this species has a habit of doing. He was also enjoying throwing tracking tunnels off the track. A very naughty boy! This species is highly intelligent, inquisitive and cheeky, and brings many smiles to many faces, even when they're undoing your bootlaces, opening containers, biting chunks out of your windscreen wipers etc.
