Kakariki

In case you didn't know Cucumber and Kokito are red fronted kakariki.

Kakariki are small, typically green, parakeets with a red crown, native to New Zealand. The word kakariki means green parrot in Maori, a native language in New Zealand. There are 3 species of kakariki which are identified by their crown. The red fronted kakariki, with a pure red crown (which often gives it the name of the red crowned parakeet). The yellow crowned parakeet with a mainly yellow crown and with some red. The Malherbe's parakeet, a critically endangered species.

The Malherbe's parakeet is so interesting it deserves a paragraph of its own... The Malherbe's parakeet is the smallest parakeet in the cycanoramphus genus. It is occasionally called the orange crowned parakeet. It was first thought to be a hybrid between the red fronted kakariki and the yellow crowned parakeet. This was proven to be wrong (even though hybrids between red fronted kakariki and yellow crowned parakeets do exist).

Malherbe's parakeets are critically endangered due to habit destruction. Also black rats (rattus rattus) and stoats (mustela erminea), which are an invasive species in New Zealand, eat the eggs and chicks of this species. Another species also contributes to the decline of these kakariki, the common brushtail possum (trichosurus vulpecula). The population has hugely declined, even though efforts to help are being done.

There are other species in the genus Cycanoramphus. The genus in edenemic to New Zealand. The Antipodes parakeet is a large all green parakeet and is noted to be the only truly carnivorous parakeet in New Zealand, and maybe the whole world. It feeds on shearwater carcasses and other dead birds. The genus Cycanoramphus is in the tribe called Platycercini. Platycercini include Northiella, Lathamus, Purpureicephalus, Barnardius, Platycercus, Cyanoramphus, Eunymphicus, Prosopeia, Psephotellus; which are mainly rosellas, kakariki and relatives.

All kakariki feed on seeds, fruits and ocaisiaonally invertebrates. They will forage on the forest floor for food. At home they can eat a variety of foods including a variety of fruits and vegetables, though not lemons, garlic nor onions, and they shouldn't eat too much spinach or lettuce. They can also have a treat of a single pasta or maybe even a small piece of bread. The main diet of most kakariki kept at home compromises of seeds, especially millet.

I very strongly recommend to let your bird to fly around in your house. But that will be another day where I explain how to tame a bird.

BYE!