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Kea

Nestor notabilis

Photo by RachaelB
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

At about 48cm long, the Kea is the world's only alpine parrot.
Kea are known for their intelligence and curiosity, they can solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain objective.

Notes:

These birds are quite cheeky. They will peck and grab anything that you are not watching. They even chew the rubber bits off the cars (windscreen wipers, edge of doors etc) We had to take our bikes inside for fear that they would tear our handlebars and seats apart!

Reference Links:

Kea

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (4)
RachaelB
Yep, there are reports that they have attacked rabbits, dogs and even horses. There is even video footage showing Kea's attacking healthy sheep. The video confirmed what many scientists had long suspected, that the Kea uses its powerful curved beak and claws to rip through the layer of wool and eat the fat from the back of the animal (See wiki link.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea#cite_note-Marriner06-36
Mark Ridgway
Fascinating bird. Formidable beak. I think these the ones that have learned to get rabbits !?

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Birds of the World
Photographed
PublishedDecember 23, 2011

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