Kakapo Kakapo The kakapo (Māori: kākāpō) or "night parrot", also called owl parrot ("Strigops habroptilus"), is a species of large, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot of the super-family Strigopoidea, endemic to New Zealand. It has finely blotched yellow-green plumage, a distinct facial disc, a large grey beak, short legs, large feet, and relatively short wings and tail. A combination of traits make it unique among its kind; it is the world's only flightless parrot, the heaviest parrot, nocturnal, herbivorous, visibly sexually dimorphic in body size, has a low basal metabolic rate and no male parental care, and is the only parrot to
Kakapo released in New Zealand to reduce rabbit numbers, but they also preyed heavily on many native species including the kakapo. Other browsing animals, such as introduced deer, competed with the kakapo for food, and caused the extinction of some of its preferred plant species. The kakapo was reportedly still present near the head of the Whanganui River as late as 1894, with one of the last records of a kakapo in the North Island being a single bird caught in the Kaimanawa Ranges by Te Kepa Puawheawhe in 1895. In 1891, the New Zealand government set aside Resolution Island in