The Chatham kākā or Chatham Island kākā (''Nestor chathamensis'') is an extinct
parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...
species previously found on the
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
The first individuals were thought to belong to the
New Zealand kākā
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartn ...
(''Nestor meridionalis''), but detailed examination of the
subfossil bones showed that they actually belong to a separate endemic species.
[ The species became extinct within the first 150 years of the arrival of the Polynesians around 1500, long before any European settlers.][ No skins or descriptions are available.][
]
Taxonomy
The Chatham kākā is assigned to the genus ''Nestor'' in the family Nestoridae
The New Zealand parrot family, Strigopidae,Nestoridae and Strigopidae are described in the same article, Bonaparte, C.L. (1849) ''Conspectus Systematis Ornithologiae''. Therefore, under rules of the ICZN, the first reviser determines priority, w ...
, a small group of parrot species native to New Zealand. It is considered to have been more closely related to the kākā (''Nestor meridionalis'') and the extinct Norfolk kākā (''Nestor productus'') than to the kea
The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wing ...
(''Nestor notabilis'').[
]
Ecology
The Chatham kākā was a forest dwelling species[ of about the same size as the ]North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
of the kākā, ''Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis''.[ However, it had a much broader pelvis, enlarged legs, and a beak that was intermediate between kea and kākā.][ It had no natural predators (it was bigger than the ]New Zealand falcon
The New Zealand falcon ( mi, kārearea or ''kāiaia''; ''Falco novaeseelandiae'') is New Zealand's only falcon. Other common names for the bird are Bush Hawk and Sparrow Hawk. It is frequently mistaken for the larger and more common swamp harri ...
) and, as is often observed with such island endemics, it is believed to have been a poor flyer.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q860367
Nestor (genus)
Extinct birds of the Chatham Islands
Bird extinctions since 1500
Chatham kākā
Late Quaternary prehistoric birds