Reader Elise Donovan sent some bird pictures, but I’m extracting the ones I found most exciting, because I love keas:
I moved to Auckland almost three years ago for a post-doc, and have just moved back to the USA for a second post-doc. Prior to moving back I decided to take a two week holiday on the south island as I had only been there once and that was for a work conference. The photos attached to this email are of some of the birds I saw (proper descriptions below), I will send another email sometime soon with some other wildlife including fur seals. It was a phenomenal two week trip to say the least.
Below several photos of two Keas (Nestor notabilis) near Milford Sound. The Kea is an alpine parrot known for being very intelligent but also very cheeky. They will pull weather stripping off cars, or fly off with loose objects (food, cameras, etc). On the way back to Te Anau after a day of kayaking on Milford Sound the van had to stop at a one way tunnel to wait for oncoming traffic. These two Keas came right up to the van, one chewed on a tire for a few minutes, the other walked right up to us without hesitation, presumably looking for us to feed it. They are beautiful birds, I’m not sure the photos do justice to the shade of green of their feathers. I saw two others in the trees on another day while hiking near Fox Glacier but they were both flying away so I didn’t get the camera out in time. Here is the New Zealand Department of Conservation link if you or anyone else would like to read more.
Keas like to destroy cars, ripping up tires, windshield wipers, chrome trim, and anything they can pry off. Here’s a video from YouTube showing a few ripping the spare-tire cover off a 4 X 4:
Look at the wicked beak on that thing!
Finally, Jacques Hausser sent some phalaropes from his trip to Svalbard (The Country Previously Known as Spitzbergen); this is one of the few species that is sexually dimorphic, but with the females having showier plumage. As Jacques notes, this is expected given the division of work between the sexes (seahorses are another example of “reverse sexual dimorphism” since it is the males who become pregnant and do most of the parental investment).
Here my next species from Svalbard, the red phalarope, Phalaropus fulicarius, which is probably the most aquatic of the waders (Charadriiformes) and, when swimming, looks like a colorful tiny gull. In this species, the male incubates the eggs and raises the chicks alone. We have seen several females, but only one male; most of them were probably on duty on their nests, and cryptic enough to remain unseen. Indeed, as a consequence of this unusual work sharing, the males have a duller coloration than the females.
Unlike most bird species, the female (right) Wilson’s Phalarope is more brightly colored and boldly patterned than the male (left). Females are also up to 25% larger in terms of overall mass. Also note the predominantly brown upper parts of the male, which provide better camouflage when he is on the nest.
“Here’s a video from YouTube showing a few ripping the spare-tire cover off a 4 X 4”
I have an annoying neighbor. Can I borrow a couple of these for about a week? 😉
Seriously, those are some mean-looking (USA slang) beaks.
Those poor parrots.
We have a word in Scots for weather like that (you will not be surprised to hear!) : dreich. And those parrots are doing their damnedest impersonations of drowned rats.
I forgot to mention that the only male phalarope we have seen is behind the female on the first picture. Not exactly on focus, but the differences in coloration are discernable (specially the top of the head and the back).
I saw a Kea at the Auckland zoo bird enclosure a couple of years ago and it was very cheeky indeed – it tried to sneak out of the enclosure with us.
I too love the kea. To me they sound like they are laughing maniacally when they do their call: keeeeeaaahahahahahah
So, the females lay eggs? When you have sexual dimorphism, what is the criteria for calling one male and the other female? Do these criteria work all the time across the board?
Females lay eggs, of course. I think the situation with them is that the male build a nest and does the chick rearing (which is a lot of work), so the females must solicit males to be allowed to lay eggs in his nest.
I was a once struck at how the kea resembles the flightless parrot called the kakapo. Sure enough, they are in the closely related genus, and have overlapping ranges.
The tire-destroying ones look as if they’ve put on red deodorant under their wings.
I read somewhere that Audubon himself was misled by the coloration of the Wilson’s Phalarope. It was a decade or more before they sorted out that the female was the more flamboyantly colored.
I remember my encounters with Keas when I visited New Zealand. They seem cute and crafty until they destroy something you owned. They seem very intelligent and curious, a lot of the things they do don’t seem to lead to any benefit for them. I remember we stayed in a hut where the Keas made a racket all night long. From the sound if it they were just sliding down the metal roof using their claws. Could it be they were just having fun?
I can’t remember if it was crows or ravens, but one of those species has been observed many times “sledding” down snow covered slopes. Sometimes using improvised objects as sleds. Over and over, as if they are doing it just for fun.
I’ve heard that keas have been known to kill sheep on occasion, as well.
Fascinating kea pictures–what a treat to see them.
I’ve seen a few Wilson’s Phalaropes in breeding plumage, but never the Red or Red-necked species (the ones of those spp that I’ve seen here in MI have been fall migrants). Such beautiful and interesting birds!