kea

Arthur's Pass

Earlier this year, I spent a couple of months working with the fantastic kea parrots (Nestor notabilis) at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, in Christchuch. They are incredibly charismatic birds with an insatiable curiosity and a sense of humour. They play with everything they can find but have extremely powerful beaks, which makes them infamous with the locals, mostly for their love of chewing on car rubber fittings and television antennae.

Hoping to see wild keas in their natural environment, we drove to Arthur's Pass National Park. It was a fantastic day and we were lucky enough to see fantastic views, an enormous flock of sheep, and plenty of cheeky wild kea.

Below are a few of my favourite photos from the day trip. Enjoy!