This page will be updated regularly on information with kea sightings and personal comments from visitors and residents of the South Island.

If you have any observations, sightings, comments that you would like to contribute, please contact us (refer Menu details).

We found this great story of kea fun and games in 2006 sent in by the Forest and Bird Secretary Jo-Anne Vaughan to Department of Conservation.

“Graeme Treloar who does the dairy artificial insemination for the Tasman area says that the new method of placing a colouring agent in a capsule on the backs of dairy cows to enable dairy farmers to identify cows in heat (the capsule breaks when the cows are mounted so distributing colouring agent on the cows back) is a fool proof system, the best yet, in every area except the Aorere Valley. Graeme was called in time and time again to cows which were obviously not in heat but with broken capsules and distributed colouring when someone noticed how it was happening. Kea were having a field day!”

 Shaun Moloney observed the following behaviours from kea whilst out hunting in 2001;

“I did observe co-operational behaviour amongst a clan of kea to displace seagulls.   I found this co-op in 2001 amazing.  Whilst glassing for tahr I observed a solitary kea in an agitated state in the presence of 2 blackbacked gulls that flew into the upper Sutherland Creek head basin a trib of the Dobson.  The kea departed the area and shortly 3 kea returned and settled separately in various parts of the basin one departed and 2 more returned till there was a total of 8 kea in the basin.  Once overwhelming numbers were present the kea separated and attacked the gulls co-operatively climbing up and dive-bombing the gulls. Feather strikes in the air showed that the gulls were injured in mid air.  I have no doubt the kea would have killed the gulls if the gulls had not managed to escape.  Once this was accomplished several birds departed leaving about 3 young birds in the area.”

This is fascinating information on wild kea cooperative behaviours – has anyone else observed similar occurrences in other populations? What other behaviours have you all observed?

Bob Hughes of Deep Cove Hostel, Fiordland has noticed a marked decrease in birdlife, including kea, since the 70’s:

“It is a great sadness that over the years I have seen the demise of the bird life in this area obviously brought about by the increase in the number of possums, rats and stoats.

I used to visit Deep Cove every year as a teacher with classes of Y8 students (on some occasions for up to three week stints).

I now go in as a relieving hostel manager spending approx 70 days per year in Deep Cove.

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When I first started coming in to Deep Cove in the early 70,s it was impossible to sleep in after day break, with the quite amazing sound of the Dawn Chorus.

All breeds of birds singing to greet the dawn,  including wekas engaging in their usual disputes, keas sliding down the hostel roof and running off with things trampers and  school kids may have left outside the hostel overnight .

Up until about fifteen years ago, before students set off on their tramp on the old Doubtful Sound track, we would get them to listen to a tape of native bird calls ---which included keas..

At a certain point on the track, they had to sit in silence for ten minutes and jot down the names of the bird calls they recognised. Both teachers and students got quite a buzz out of this, recording all the different calls they could hear. and good debate often followed. Was it a bell bird or tui or etc? What did they eat, find a picture of one etc.

In the early 90,s we did away with this activity. Students could sit patiently for ten minutes and not hear one single bird call! A great sadness

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 Another tramp the students participated in was, and still is, climbing up the Hanging Valley track to the base of the Huntleigh Falls. Students would always see heaps of keas and they would come round entertaining us all with their antics while we had our lunch.

 During my last trip to Deep Cove in 2005 with a class of students, we only observed two or three  keas on this same tramp. Even my famous kea call (blowing a piece of grass through my fingers) failed to attract any others !!”

“It is really only in the past three or four years we have noticed a rapid decline in the kea population...

The last time we saw keas around the hostel was last Christmas. Two young ones and one adult.

I have been back on several occasions this year and apart from seeing  a couple at West Arm and three on the Wilmot Pass while traveling in to Deep Cove that was all I observed”.

One or two large groups of kea (potentially up to 50 birds in each flock!) were observed flying in the valleys of the Richardson Mountains in February 2008 by a helicopter pilot during routine surveying of the area. Everyone on board was suitably blown away by the experience and very excited by the numbers seen. This is great to hear and hopefully bodes well for kea populations in that area.

Unfortunately we have the reverse being experienced in areas such as Kahurangi National Park. Friends of Flora volunteers have been monitoring the wildlife within the parks boundaries (inclusive of kea) for many years whilst carrying out monitoring of pest trapping lines. Kea numbers during that time have shown a marked decrease – a major concern for that area and supportive of the recent results published in the OSNZ Atlas data (ie a decrease in kea distribution in the northern areas of the South Island).

‘In Good Company’ – M.Pickering, Christchurch Press (30^th August, 2008)

“A lone kea gets Mark Pickering wondering about its mates.

Based purely on my own tramping observations over the past few years, I would say Kea are getting rare”….

This is a nicely thought out article balancing the 1080 pros and cons and which highlights the concerns for all our native species from a trampers point of view – for an exert of this article please refer to our Kea in the News page.

Gottleib Braun - Elwert made the following observation in July 2008:

"I will certainly keep my eyes open for these wonderful companions. Last year I had up to 11 Kea at Caroline Hut. The predator control work in the Tasman Valley appears to be showing good results. Just three years ago we were down to a single bird, down from 13 some 17 years ago."