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 the habitable range for kakapo. Although the kakapo was extinct in many parts of the islands by the time Europeans arrived, including the Tararua and Aorangi Ranges, it was locally abundant in parts of New Zealand, such as the central North Island and forested parts of the South Island. Although kakapo numbers were reduced by Māori settlement, they rapidly declined after European colonisation. Beginning in the 1840s, Pākehā settlers cleared vast tracts of land for farming and grazing, further reducing kakapo habitat. They brought more dogs and other mammalian predators, including domestic cats, black rats and stoats. Europeans knew little