Tales from the garden: Kaka

July 2025

Let me tell you about the visitor we had a fortnight ago on Matariki. I was outside in the misty early morning light, looking to see if any butterflies had eclosed the day before whilst I was at work when I caught a glimpse of movement in next door's kanuka.

There is a small stand of kanuka that spans the boundary of our garden and next door. I think one fell down either from earth movement or weather last winter and wedged into the others. Kanuka are striking with their beautiful structure exposed because the leaves are only at the top. Birds often use them for high perches, so it is not unusual for there to be activity in them. Imagine my surprise when I saw that what was moving was brown and chunky. Hubby was with me at the time and I have to admit to uttering an unprintable swear word when I told him it was a kaka.

A kākā digging into the dead kanuka wood

I have seen glimpses of them since we moved here. One flew overhead when I went for a rare early morning walk and I saw one that had been flushed into view by another bird, the kaka's red feathers on full display in the evening light as it banked. They have been coming over from the pest free islands in winter for years and the first time I saw one on the North Shore was 2014 in Smiths Bush. However, apart from the zoo, the visit on Matariki has been the first time I've seen one "close" since I was on Great Barrier Island in 2005. This area of Auckland has, through luck or design, good tree cover and Birkenhead in particular is known for its winter kākā population. Pest Free Kaipātiki have installed nest boxes and created artificial hollows in tall trees in the area to encourage them to breed, but on the whole they need good predator control and old trees to flourish. There are none known to be breeding in this area yet.

You can see the distinct rust red feathers on the underside of the kaka, which also extends on the underwings

North Island kaka are designated "at risk - recovering" currently under the New Zealand Threat Classification System, which is due to the great work at mainland sanctuaries, which has allowed birds to spread from the limited pest free islands, but the South Island kaka is still vulnerable.

The bush in our garden is too young to be of much use to the species, as kaka take sap from trees and dig out insect larvae from wood high in the canopy. They also like nectar from tree flowers and eat fruits. It's not advised to feed kaka, not because they don't come into garden feeders, but because feeding them the wrong foods has led to a high level of deformaties in baby kaka in the Wellington region. Indeed, 80% of baby kaka being monitored in Wellington died because they had been fed crackers, nuts and bread. I know people who feed them locally stick with apple. Pest Free Kaipatiki also has an information sheet regarding support for local kaka. It's a good resource to know what else would be good to plant in the garden to have more chance of seeing them regularly.

It was a very special visit and I am pleased that we got to watch one foraging from our deck and balcony, although I guess this blog should really be called "tales from the neighbour's garden!"