Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus)

BirdParrotCritically Endangered

Overview

The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is one of the world's most extraordinary birds: a large, flightless, nocturnal parrot from New Zealand, with soft, mottled moss-green plumage and an owl-like disc of feathers around its face. It is the heaviest parrot in the world and one of the longest-lived birds, and it is critically endangered — its entire population numbers only in the low hundreds, every individual known and named by conservationists.

Having evolved on islands with no native land mammals, the kakapo lost the ability to fly and became a ground-dwelling, slow-breeding herbivore — adaptations that left it tragically vulnerable when humans and introduced predators arrived.

Conservation note: the kakapo is Critically Endangered and survives only on predator-free islands under intensive management. Verify current numbers at authoritative sources.

Habitat & Range

Once widespread across New Zealand's forests, the kakapo now survives only on a few carefully managed, predator-free offshore islands, in native forest and scrub. Historically it lived in a range of forest and shrubland habitats; today its range is defined by where introduced mammalian predators have been removed and the birds can be protected and monitored.

Diet

Kakapo are herbivores, feeding on a variety of native plants — leaves, stems, roots, bark, seeds, and especially fruit. They are closely tied to the fruiting of certain native trees, notably the rimu, and tend to breed only in years when these trees produce a heavy crop of fruit. This link between food abundance and breeding is a key part of why the kakapo reproduces so infrequently.

Behavior

The kakapo is nocturnal and flightless, walking and climbing through the forest at night and freezing or relying on camouflage when threatened — a defence that worked against birds of prey but not against mammals. It has a remarkable breeding system: it is the only parrot with a “lek” mating system, in which males gather and compete by producing a deep, resonant, far-carrying “boom” from special bowls they dig, to attract females from a distance. Breeding happens only every few years, tied to fruiting cycles, and females raise the chicks alone. Kakapo are long-lived, potentially surviving for many decades.

Human Interaction & Conservation

The kakapo was driven to the edge of extinction by hunting and, above all, by introduced predators such as cats, rats, and stoats, against which its ground-living, freeze-when-scared lifestyle offered no defence. It survives today only because of one of the world's most intensive bird-recovery programmes: every bird is monitored, managed on predator-free islands, and helped through breeding seasons. Numbers have slowly grown but remain perilously low. Consult the IUCN Red List and New Zealand conservation authorities for current status.

More photos of the kakapo