The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Kaka

To deflect attention from my apalling (SunnyO word of the day) last post...

Prior to Christmas, on a couple of occasions, I noticed two rather large, dark green parrots playing in a tree near the top of the Cable car. Someone who seemed to know told me they were "Kaka", native parrots. That's since been confirmed by all & sundry, and so we can assume that these new neighbours are indeed the real thing & not escapees from a local aviary.

In fact, they almost certainly will have hailed from the nearby (as the kaka, kereru & tui fly) Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.

And am I correct in assuming that this has been a bumper breeding season for birds? New ducklings continue to appear at the duckpond, way past the end of Spring, tui continue to thrive & reluctantly share their territory with interlopers... and in the last few days, it's not two kaka playing & harassing the jealous tui, it's more like 6 or 8 (depending on who you talk to).

At around 6pm, the air is pierced with their high pitched call, interspersed with the occasional appalling squawks - I'm undecided if these squawks are also the kaka, or some huge magpies I've seen in the vicinity.

Whatever, it looks like the tui are having to cede some territory, albeit extremely reluctantly.

Kākā - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia