North Island Kokako

The North Island Kokako is a soft blue-grey bird with a black facial mask and a pair of vivid blue, fleshy wattles hanging beneath the bill, features that immediately catch the eye against the muted plumage. It belongs to the ancient New Zealand wattlebird family, Callaeidae, which also includes the Saddleback and the now-extinct Huia.

Rather than relying on strong flight, the Kokako has short rounded wings and typically moves through the forest by a distinctive sequence of bounding leaps and long, gliding swoops between trees, rarely flying far or high. Once widespread across the North Island, it declined severely due to predation and habitat loss, but intensive pest control and translocations have allowed numbers to recover in many managed sites.

Key field marks

• Soft blue-grey body plumage
• Black facial mask around the eye and bill
• Bright blue, fleshy wattles beneath the bill (orange to yellow at the very base in some individuals)
• Short, rounded black wings; long tail
• Strong legs adapted for hopping and leaping through the canopy

Similar species

• Tui is glossy black-green rather than blue-grey and has a white throat tuft, not blue wattles.
• Saddleback is smaller, mostly black with a chestnut "saddle" on the back and red (not blue) wattles.
• No other New Zealand bird combines blue-grey plumage with prominent blue wattles.

Range

Endemic to the North Island of New Zealand, now found mainly in protected mainland forest reserves with intensive predator control and on several offshore islands where it has been translocated.

Habitat

Requires large tracts of mature, structurally complex native forest with a closed canopy that allows its characteristic leaping-and-gliding style of movement.

Migration

Sedentary and strongly territorial, pairs holding the same forest territory for many years.

Behavior

Moves through the forest mainly by hopping and leaping along branches and gliding between trees rather than sustained flight, foraging deliberately through the mid and upper canopy.

Voice

Gives slow, deep, organ-like song phrases that carry remarkably far through the forest, often performed as duets between mated pairs at dawn, along with a range of softer conversational and mewing calls.

Feeding

Browses on leaves, fruit, flowers, and buds of native trees and shrubs, occasionally taking invertebrates, and can go for extended periods on leaves alone when fruit is scarce.

Nesting

Builds a large, well-hidden cup nest high in the forest canopy; the female incubates two to three eggs while the male brings her food, and both parents feed the chicks.