Zealandia - Kaka | A Gallery from Summer Report | RNZ National

From August til February 2012, in her spare time, Arts on Sunday presenter Lynn Freeman was part of a hardy bunch of kaka monitors at the Zealandia sanctuary in Wellington. 2012 saw the banding of the 400th kaka chick making the species one of Zealandia’s great success stories since the parrots were reintroduced to the Capital around a decade ago. Despite their soaring numbers, volunteers spend hours keeping an eye on nest boxes around the sanctuary.

Five eggs in kaka nest box progeny of p-wl (Pawla) mum, and p-wb (Arnie ), dad.

Young chicks at rest.

Chicks at 4- 5 weeks.

Chicks at 5 weeks.

Chicks ready to be banded at around 6 weeks.

Close up of 6-weeks-old chicks.

Banding time for Pawla's chicks.

Tentative beak ahead of fledgling.

Banded chicks thinking about making the great escape.

Double trouble! who will get out first.

Getting bold.

Chick just out of nestbox clinging to top of box and taking in its surroundings.

Chick (MY-G, Zealandia's 400th banded chick) has just climbed tree the nest box is nailed to.

MY-G makes it over to a punga.

Close up on MY-G hiding in a punga just a couple of hours after leaving the nest box.

Mum comes to feed and comfort MY-G.

MY-G crashes down to earth and clings onto tree

Last sighting of MY-G - I left him in peace at this point! Looking forward to seeing him in the valley soon.

The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.

Information

Zealandia Galleries

Video

Videos from Lynn Freeman's Zealandia series on Vimeo

More About Birds on Radio New Zealand

Ngā Manu
Listen to all of the bird calls from Morning Report.
Birdwatching with This Way Up
Finding out about New Zealand's birds with birdwatcher Hugh Robertson.
Birds on Our Changing World
A collection of stories about our native birds.

External Links

Department of Conservation

Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

New Zealand Birds