The Chatham Kaka, or Chatham Island Kākā (Nestor sp.) is an undescribed parrot

Parrot

Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...

 species previously found on the Chatham Islands

Chatham Islands

The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. The first individuals were thought to belong to the Kākā

Kaka

The New Zealand Kaka, also known as Kākā, is a New Zealand parrot endemic to the native forests of New Zealand.-Description:...

 (Nestor meridionalis), but detailed examination of the subfossil

Subfossil

Subfossil refers to remains whose fossilization process is not complete, either for lack of time or because the conditions in which they were buried were not optimal for fossilization....

 bones showed that they actually belong to a separate endemic species. The species became extinct within the first 150 years of the arrival of the Polynesians

Polynesians

The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...

 around 1550, long before any European settlers. No skins or descriptions are available.

Taxonomy

The Chatham Kaka is assigned to the genus Nestor

Nestor (genus)

The genus Nestor is the only genus of the Nestorini tribe. Together with the Kakapo in the Strigopini tribe, they form the small parrot family Strigopidae. The genus Nestor contains two extant parrot species from New Zealand and two extinct species from Norfolk Island, Australia and Chatham...

 in the family Strigopidae, a small group of parrot species native to New Zealand. It is considered to have been more closely related to the Kākā

Kaka

The New Zealand Kaka, also known as Kākā, is a New Zealand parrot endemic to the native forests of New Zealand.-Description:...

 (Nestor meridionalis) and the extinct Norfolk Kaka (Nestor productus) than to the Kea

Kea

The Kea is a large species of parrot found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings and has a large narrow curved grey-brown upper beak. The Kea is the world's only alpine parrot...

 (Nestor notabilis).

Ecology

The Chatham Kaka was a forest dwelling species of about the same size as the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

 subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Kākā, Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis. It had no natural predators (it was bigger than the Kārearea

Karearea

The New Zealand Falcon or Kārearea, Falco novaeseelandiae, is New Zealand's only endemic falcon and the only remaining bird of prey endemic to New Zealand. Other common names for the bird are Bush Hawk and Sparrow Hawk...

, or New Zealand Falcon) and, as is often observed with such island endemics, it is believed to have been a poor flyer.