New Zealand Kaka

About the New Zealand Kaka

The New Zealand kākā (Nestor meridionalis) is a large species of parrot of the family Strigopidae found in native forests of New Zealand. The species is often known by the abbreviated name kākā, although it shares this name with the Norfolk kākā and Chatham kākā, both recently extinct. Two subspecies of New Zealand kākā are recognised. It is endangered and has disappeared from much of its former range, though the re-introduction of North Island kākā at Zealandia in Wellington has led to an increasing population of the birds across the city.

The New Zealand kākā was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the parrots in the genus Psittacus and coined the binomial name Psittacus meridionalis. The specific epithet meridionalis is Latin meaning "southern". Gmelin based his description on the "Southern brown parrot" from New Zealand that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a preserved specimen in the Leverian Museum in London. The New Zealand kākā is now placed... Wikipedia →