Parrots are unique among birds, but the kea and kakapo are unique among parrots. Like other creatures living on isolated islands, these New Zealand natives have evolved to fill very different niches than their continental cousins.

While the overwhelming majority of parrot species prefer tropical rainforest warmth, the kea does just fine in snow and glacier covered alpine areas. In fact, like some sort of cold weather gremlin, the kea likes to bedevil skiers by rifling through their belongings for food and chewing on tasty morsels like rubber windshield wiper blades.

While it’s often referred to as “the clown of the mountains” for such antics; the kea has a dark side – it’s been implicated in attacks on sheep and other mammals. Documented evidence shows the bird swooping down on the backs of sheep and tearing through the wool and into the flesh for a taste of mutton. The sheep are not usually killed unless previously weakened by age or disease, or if infection sets in afterward. Since this behavior does not endear them to farmers, a bounty was put on their heads and the kea parrots were hunted to the point that they were endangered, but the birds came under protection in 1986.

It’s large for a parrot: approximately 19 inches long and weighing slightly over 2 pounds. The name “kea” comes from the native Maoris, thought to be derived from the bird’s screech.

The iconic flightless New Zealand bird is, of course, the kiwi – but there’s also a flightless parrot, the kakapo. It is however, an excellent tree climber, and can make its from the canopy way back to the ground by gliding with spread wings.

The kakapo is also called the owl parrot, because in another departure from other pscittacines, it’s largely nocturnal. At up to 9 pounds, it’s the heaviest parrot and may be one of the longest lived birds.

Sadly, such introduced predators as cats, rats, pigs, stoats and Australian opossums have reduced the kakapo’s numbers to few more than 100, although strong conservation methods have been put into place.

The three species of kakariki, the yellow crowned parakeet, red-fronted parakeet and orange fronted parakeet; are more “typically” parrot-like in appearance and behavior. Although good pets, they’re rarely seen in American aviculture. “Kakariki” comes from Maori for “small parrot” (other sources say it means “green parrot”). And while we’re playing the name game, the birds most Americans refer to as parakeets are called budgerigars by the rest of the world; while “parakeet” serves as a more generalized term for any of several species of slender bodied parrots with long, thin tails. As far as all those “k” names are concerned, “kaka” is the Maori, also their ancestral Polynesian, word for parrot.

Like the other New Zealand parrots, kakarikis on the New Zealand “mainland” are under assault from habitat destruction and introduced predators. The best hope for all of New Zealand’s beleagured parrot species seems to be on outlying islands where the presence of human habitation and marauding animals is nonexistent to minimal.