New Zealands Parrot
By Tiffany Pahl
By Tiffany Pahl
Natural History An almost flightless parrot, the kakapo is an extremely fat bird. Adults can weigh 6 or 7 pounds (3 kg). The kakapo is ground-dwelling, but it will sometimes climb trees. With its large parrot-bill, a kakapo eats nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetation, and some insects.
Kakapos are otherwise solitary birds, but they have a very elaborate mating system. The male builds a bowl,a shallow depression in the ground with paths leading to it through the underbrush. He sits in the bowl and booms to attract females: he repeatedly sends out a deep, resonant call that can be heard over great distances.
One researcher said that the call was so low was felt more in the bones than it was heard, "like a heartbeat in the night".
To complicate matters, females apparently come into breeding condition only when a particular tree fruits, which is just once every two years or so. Then the female lays a single egg in a nest on the ground.
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