Kaka

This article is about the bird. For Brazilian footballer, see Kaká.

The Kaka (Nestor meridionalis) is a parrot native to the forests of New Zealand. It has two subspecies, the North Island Kaka, Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis, and the South Island Kaka, N. m. meridionalis.

The Kaka is a medium sized parrot, around 45 cm in length and weighing about 550 g, and is closely related to the Kea, but has darker plumage and is more arboreal. Both sub-species have brown/green plumage with orange and scarlet flashes under the wings. It lives in the lowland and mid-altitude forest. Its strongholds are currently the offshore reserves of Kapiti Island, Codfish Island and Little Barrier Island.

The Kaka feeds on fruits, berries, seeds, flowers, buds, nectar and invertebrates. It has a brush tongue with which it feeds on nectar, and it uses its strong beak to dig out the grubs of the longhorn beetle.

The Kaka is considered vulnerable (CITES II). It has greatly declined, in part from habitat loss, in part because of introduced wasps and possums, which compete with the kaka for honeydew, which is excreted by scale insects. Research has shown that this honeydew is very important for breeding birds, especially those breeding in southern beech forests. The difficult nature of controlling the wasps makes the kaka's future very uncertain. A closely related species, Nestor productus, the Norfolk Island Kaka, became extinct in 1851.