Bird of 0th, MT09

A whole new year, a whole new bird.

Actually not a new bird at all but a very old and very endangered bird, the kakapo of New Zealand. The kakapo became the kakapo 70 million years ago when there were no mammalian predators in New Zealand and so it soon forgot how to fly. This turned out to be a big mistake, as the colonisation of N.Z. resulted in the introduction of cats, rats and stoats, none of whom are averse to snacking on a kakapo. Now the kakapo is a critically endangered species and in April 2009, students of the kakapo could only count 125 living individuals. Happily, humans are doing a lot to save this fine bird and so we hope that things will improve.

The kakapo is round and kind of fat and has a distinctive smell that has been described as a 'pleasant musty odour'. He has an owlish face and so, with impeccable logic, early European settlers called him the 'owl parrot'. (Things with Wings likes this double-barrelled approach to naming birds.) If you click on the link below you will see Stephen Fry meeting the kakapo and reflecting that he looks like a Victorian gentleman (the kakapo, not Stephen Fry. although now we come to think of it...). If this is true - and we think that it is - perhaps we must come to the sad conclusion that, like all Victorian gentleman, it is simply that the kakapo's day is drawing to a close and his time is nearly up.

Another reason, and indeed a much better reason, to watch the clip posted below, is that you will get to see a kakapo attempting to mate with a human's head.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8281382.stm

Thank you, Laura Coleman, for alerting us to this noble bird and this curious spectacle.
On that note, we would like to remind all our readers that Things with Wings relies very much on its members' help in drawing our attention to matters bird. Of course we are always on the lookout but there is so much going on in the world of bird that we really cannot keep up to date without your help.