they are one big blue, green, invisible orange, sneaky, picky, smart, cute, begging ball of awesomeness!
The first time we saw a Kea we had pulled into a parking lot - I am unsure if it was a 'mother nature' potty break or just for photos - they all sort of mesh together after so many - but there was this baby and a momma cavorting about with another car and its occupants.
My mother had just read up on this very bird at the visitors center some 10 kms behind us so we knew what they were called. We were also informed that you are not supposed to feed them ... as they batted their non-existant eyelashes and held their stomachs in hunger.
This was not our only sighting - they are sort of like bears were in Yellowstone, back when there were bears in Yellowstone and people hand fed them. And they might not look like it from the photos - you definitely have to take into account their personality, but I am sure in clinical trials you would get the same 'awwwwww' from a kea as you would a baby panda (personality folks ...).They hung out where people hung out and were VERY inquisitive. In Wiki it states: "Kea are legendary for their intelligence and curiosity, both vital to their survival in a harsh mountain environment. Kea can solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain objective." Their objective, from what I saw, for the most part, was begging for food - and doing a damn fine job of it!A Kea with a parking lot as a background - very, very familiar:
A Kea in the wild!!! Actually he just jumped off the parking lot onto a rock so I snapped a shot ...
Here we found two Kea's eating something on the ground beside a couple who appeared to be picnicking from the back of their car. Their 'story' is that one of their tuna-fish sandwiches fell on the ground - thus the Kea police were not going to fine them, or flog them or what ever happens if you get caught feeding a Kea - and the Kea's started eating it. The fun part was watching them suck off the tuna fish 'juice' from the red peppers that apparently these folks deemed part of a tuna fish sandwich - then spit them out.
One of their favorite places to hang were the mirrors. They would peer into your car with that 'my baby is starving back at the nest' look.
But so pretty:
A Kea in flight! And the otherwise invisible orange appears! Not a great shot - but they didn't really take flight that often - lazy buggers. I chased a few (OK, I'm not proud of it) to try to get them to fly off so I could take a photo but they just ran/waddled.
This has to be the laziest pair of Kea's on the entire island. The people in the car wanted to go, and since they were surrounded by people ooohing and ahhing they were timid about pulling out. I was excited since I was going to get a shot of a Kea in flight: bird -vs- speeding car - bird will always lose. But from where I stood, no lie, that car drove off with two Kea hunkered down (aerodynamically I am sure) until it rounded the corner a very long way off! Maybe just surfing? But if you can fly, what would be the thrill in that? Go figure - Kea's are weird.
But ... pretty:
See that duct tape to the right of the Kea below? For some inexplicable reason - apparently it didn't all need to be there since seconds after taking this shot, the Kea looked up ... and I guess decided it would be a good time to rip it to shreds (it stopped - there was some left - we didn't have to report it to the rental car people). Yeah - he is peeking in at Gary - or more likely was telecommuning that he needed a cracker ...
But, damn - who can say no to the killer 'head tilt'?
And here she is:
my elusive 'Kea in flight' photo!
There now, everything you ever needed to know about this funny, strange parrot and you didn't even ask!
2 comments:
Thank you for Kea 101! What a cute, smart, sassy bird! Why don't we have fun birds like that flying around Houston?
That is the longest damn bird post on earth. On EARTH. It made me laugh.
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