Brazen - a photo on Flickriver

Brazen

An adult male Kea named Jeff investigating the new visitors to its home high up in Fiordland National Park, alongside the Milford Rd.

Kea are innately curious and full of personality making them rather attracted to human activity. Sometimes just to watch and be a part of whatever's going on, but notoriously to rip apart rubber components on the exterior of cars just for amusement. This individual took a particular liking to the cables exiting the solar panel on the roof of our campervan.

As the world's only alpine parrot, these incredible birds are omnivorous, eating mostly berries, roots, leaves, insects, and nectar but also taking to carrion when available. Feeding wild Kea is strongly discouraged by the Department of Conservation as it can affect the Kea's eating behaviour. Some individuals are believed to have developed a taste/addiction to the preservatives in a lot of the food we eat and have starved themselves to death without a natural source for these in their typical diet.

Historically, farmers have been known to kill approximately 150,000 Kea due to concerns over them killing their sheep but full protection was granted to them in 1986 which makes any such activity illegal. Recent population estimates range between 1,000-15,000 but are hard to gauge due to a number of reasons including their extensive range, rugged terrain, low kea density, cryptic behaviour of adults, and flocking behaviour of juveniles.

More can be seen on this individual here: keadatabase.nz/birds/jeff-connell

Taken on: August 25, 2020

Tags:

Te Anau

Southland

Milford Road

Fiordland

Fiordland National Park

Kea

Bird

Wildlife

Sony A7iii

Sony

South Island

Native

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Sets appears in: • Wildlife

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Camera: Sony ILCE-7M3, f/3.2, 1/250 sec, 138mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony ILCE-7M3
Lens:	FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS
Aperture:	f/3.2
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	138mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-0.7 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Contrast:	High
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.3 (Macintosh)
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