Kokako (North Island)

Description:

A large grey/blue bird with black facial mask, stout black bill and black legs with adults showing a diagnostic round bright blue wattle. (In juvs this is pinkish.) Poor flyers, they tend to be seen scrambling through the forest canopy but most often are heard as they have an incredible mournful fluting call that is unmistakeable once heard.

Habitat:

Tall podacarp hardwood forest through the central North Island of New Zealand.

Notes:

An endangered endemic, Kokako came in two sub species. The South Island sub is now thought to be extinct. Pictured is a North Island bird from the Pureora Forest Park Reserve in the central North Island. Although anyone is free to go and find these birds they are generally very hard to locate if not calling and harder to photograph due to their love of heavy foliage.