Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

Kea Parrot Habitat

Midway between New Zealand and New Caledonia are two small islands, Norfolk and Philip, each of which was once the home of now extinct species of Nestor. Philip Island, the smaller of these, is only about five square miles in area, and although Norfolk Island is only about four miles distant, neither species has been found except in its own island.

The Philip Island Parrot (N. pro-ductus) was about fifteen inches in length and may be readily distinguished by a broad yellowish band across the breast. This bird was probably always a rare species, for the limited habitat would preclude the possibility of it ever having been very abundant. The last individual seen alive was about 1851, and of the species there remains hardly twenty skins distributed among the museums of the world.

The Norfolk Island Parrot (N. norfolkensis) was the smallest species of the genus, being only twelve inches long, and is further distinguished by possessing the longest bill of any, this being some three and eight tenths inches in length.

There are no specimens of this bird known to be preserved, and in fact the species rests entirely on a description published by Latham in 1822, and a colored drawing of the head executed by one F. L. Bauer, a botanical artist, who made it from a living specimen on Norfolk Island, January 19, 1805. The remaining species is the Count of Essling's Parrot (N. esslingi), only a single specimen of which has ever been obtained, and the precise place and date of capture of this are both unknown. It approaches most closely to the Kaka and is thought by some to be merely an abnormal variation of this species.

 

 

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