Kaka

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Kaka

The Kaka, Nestor meridionalis, is a parrot

Parrot

File:Ara ararauna -eating -Wilhelma Zoo-8-2rc.jpgParrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genus that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most warm and tropical regions....
endemic to the forests of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
.

Kaka was described by German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin was a Germany natural history, botanist and entomologist....
in 1788. There are two subspecies, the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, the other being the South Island. The island is 113,729 square km in area, making it the List of islands by area....
Kaka, Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis, and the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major Islands of New Zealand of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. The Maori name for the South Island, Te Wai Pounamu, meaning "The Water/s of Greenstone" , possibly evolved from Te Wahi Pounamu which means "The Place Of Greenstone"....
Kaka, N. m. meridionalis. The name Kaka is a Maori language

Maori language

Maori or te reo Maori, also commonly shortened to te reo , functions as one of the official languages of New Zealand. Linguists classify it within the Eastern Polynesian languages as closely related to Cook Islands Maori, Tuamotuan language and Tahitian language; somewhat less closely to Hawaiian language and Marquesan language; a...
word meaning "parrot".
genus Nestor contains four species:

All four are thought to stem from a 'proto-Kaka', dwelling in the forests of New Zealand 5 million years ago.

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Encyclopedia

The Kaka, Nestor meridionalis, is a parrot

Parrot

New Zealand

Taxonomy and naming

The Kaka was described by German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin was a Germany natural history, botanist and entomologist....
in 1788. There are two subspecies, the North Island

North Island

South Island

Maori language

Classification

The genus Nestor contains four species:

the Kaka, Nestor meridionalis
the Kea
Kea

The Kea is a species of parrot found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. The Kea is one of the few alpine parrots in the world, and includes carrion in an omnivorous diet consisting mainly of roots, leaves, berries, nectar and insects....
, N. notabilis
the Norfolk Island Kaka
Norfolk Island Kaka

| name = Norfolk Island Kaka| image = John-Gould-001.jpg| image_caption = Painting by John Gould| status = EX | status_system = IUCN3.1| extinct = 1851?...
, N. productus †
the Chatham Island Kaka
Chatham Island Kaka

The Chatham Island Kaka was a species of parrot found in New Zealand. The first individuals were thought to belong to the Kaka , but detailed examination of the subfossil bones showed that they actually belong to a separate, undescribed species endemic to the Chatham Islands....
, N. sp. †

All four are thought to stem from a 'proto-Kaka', dwelling in the forests of New Zealand 5 million years ago. The closest relative is the Kakapo

Kakapo

The Kakapo , Strigops habroptila, also called owl parrot, is a species of Nocturnal animal parrot Endemism in birds to New Zealand. It has finely blotched yellow-green plumage, a distinct facial disc of sensory, vibrissa feathers, a large grey beak, short legs, large feet, and wings and a tail of relatively short length....
(Strigops habroptila). Together, they form the parrot family Nestoridae

Nestoridae

The parrot family Nestoridae consists of two genus, Nestor and Strigops. The genus Nestor consists of the Kea, Kaka, Norfolk Island Kaka and Chatham Island Kaka, while the genus Strigops contains the iconic Kakapo....
, with comprises an ancient group that split off from all other Psittacidae before their radiation.

Description

The Kaka is a medium sized parrot, around 45 cm (18 in) in length and weighing about 550 g

Gram

The gram , ; symbol g, is a Physical unit of mass.Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice" , a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or Scientific notation kg, which itself is...
, and is closely related to the Kea

Kea

The Kea is a species of parrot found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. The Kea is one of the few alpine parrots in the world, and includes carrion in an omnivorous diet consisting mainly of roots, leaves, berries, nectar and insects....
, but has darker plumage and is more arboreal

Arboreal

Arboreal is a word meaning "related to or resembling trees". Its meaning comes from the Latin arbor, meaning tree.In biology, an arboreal animal is one which inhabits or spends large amounts of time in trees or Shrubes....
. The forehead and crown are greyish-white and the nape is greyish-brown. The neck and abdomen are more reddish, while the wings are more brownish. Both sub-species have a strongly patterned brown/green/grey plumage with orange and scarlet flashes under the wings; color variants which show red to yellow coloration especially on the breast are sometimes found.

The calls include a harsh ka-aa and a whistling u-wiia.

Distribution and habitat

The Kaka lives in lowland and mid-altitude native forest. Its strongholds are currently the offshore reserves of Kapiti Island

Kapiti Island

Kapiti Island is a small but conspicuous island about 8 km off the west coast of the lower North Island of New Zealand. It is 10 kilometres long, running southwest/northeast, and roughly 2 kilometres wide, being more or less rectangular in shape, and has an area of 19.65 km? ....
, Codfish Island

Codfish Island

Codfish island or Whenua Hou is a small island located to the west of Stewart Island/Rakiura in southern New Zealand. It reaches a height of 249 m close to the south coast....
and Little Barrier Island.

Behaviour

Diet

The Kaka feeds on fruits, berries, seeds, flowers, buds, nectar and invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal lacking a vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal species ? all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum vertebrate ....
s. It uses its strong beak to shred the cones of the kauri tree to obtain the seeds. 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

Longhorn beetle

The longhorn beetles are a cosmopolitan family of beetles, typically characterized by extremely long Antenna , which are often as long as or longer than the beetle's body....
.

Nesting

Kaka make their nests in hollow trees, laying clutches of 2 to 4 eggs in late winter. Both parents assist in feeding the chicks.

Conservation status

The Kaka is considered vulnerable (CITES II). It has greatly declined, in part from habitat loss, in part because of introduced wasp

WAsP

WAsP is a PC program for predicting wind climates, wind resources, and power productions from wind turbines and wind farms. The predictions are based on wind data measured at stations in the same region....
s, possum

Possum

A possum is any of about 64 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi . The name derives from their resemblance to the opossums of the Americas....
s and bee

Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are a monophyly lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila....
s, which compete with the Kaka for honeydew

Honeydew (secretion)

Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky substance, secreted by aphids and some scale insects as they feed on plant sap. When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the gut's terminal opening....
, which is excreted by scale insect

Scale insect

The scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, generally classified as the superfamily Coccoidea. There are about 8,000 species of scale insects....
s. 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

Norfolk Island Kaka

External links

Parrot Encyclopedia - Species Profiles
(New Zealand Department of Conservation
New Zealand Department of Conservation

The Department of Conservation , commonly known by its acronym, "DOC", is the state sector organisations in New Zealand of New Zealand which deals with the Conservation ethic of New Zealand?s natural and historic Cultural heritage....
)