Quick Facts
- Type
- Bird
- Size
- About 58–64 cm long
- Weight
- 2–4 kg (4.4–8.8 lb)
- Habitat
- Native forest and scrub, now only on predator-free islands
- Diet
- Herbivore — leaves, roots, fruit, seeds and pollen
- Active Time
- Nocturnal, active at night
- Lifespan
- Up to 60 years or more
- It is the world's only flightless parrot, using its short wings for balance rather than flight.
- It is also the heaviest parrot species, with a soft, rounded, ground-dwelling body.
- Males dig bowl-shaped hollows and produce deep, booming calls at night to attract females, a mating system called lek breeding.
- Fewer than about 250 kakapo remain, all intensively managed on predator-free islands to prevent extinction.
About the Kakapo
The Kakapo is a nocturnal, flightless parrot found only in New Zealand, now surviving as a critically endangered population of roughly 250 birds, all intensively managed on predator-free islands. It is the heaviest parrot in the world, with a soft, rounded body and short wings used only for balance and to parachute-glide when it drops from a tree, never for powered flight. Rather than pairing off, males dig bowl-shaped hollows connected by cleared tracks and gather there at night to inflate air sacs and produce a deep, booming call that can carry for kilometers to attract females, a mating system called lek breeding. Its moss-green, owl-like face and musty odor add to its strange, ancient character.
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