A large, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot found only in New Zealand, with mottled moss-green feathers and an owl-like face. It is the world's heaviest parrot and the only flightless one. Introduced cats, rats and stoats almost wiped it out; it now lives mostly on predator-free islands.
Quick answers
What is it?Bird
Carnivore?No, herbivore
Dangerous?No
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Night
A large, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot, sometimes called the owl-parrot.
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?No
Māori once hunted it for its meat and feathers; today every known bird is named, tagged and kept on predator-free islands.
At a glance
Found inNew Zealand
HabitatForest, Scrub, Grassland
ColoursGreen, Yellow
SizeMedium
Length58–64 cm
WeightMales 1.5–3 kg; females 0.95–1.6 kg
Legs2
Covered inFeathers
Lives alone
Lives forUp to 100 years
Lays eggs
In the wild
- Where it lives
- New Zealand only: four small predator-free islands, plus a mainland sanctuary at Maungatautari since 2023.
- What it eats
- Plants only. It can tell foods apart by smell while foraging at night, which only one other parrot is known to do.
- Conservation
- Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List)
Did you know
The world's only flightless parrot, with just 325 known birds alive in 2026.
It may be one of the longest-lived birds, with a reported lifespan of up to 100 years.
It is the only parrot with a lek: males gather and display from bowls they dig in the ground, and females choose between them.
Often confused with
- Kea
Both are New Zealand parrots, but the kākāpō is a heavy, flightless bird of the ground at night, while the kea flies and lives in South Island forests and mountains.
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