An olive-brown kea standing on a rock with its hooked beak and layered wing feathers visible.
Adult kea photographed in Fiordland, New Zealand.
Overview
New Zealand Birds Online describes an olive-green, strong-flying parrot with scarlet underwings and a slender grey-black bill. Females are smaller with shorter bills. Juveniles show a yellow cere and eyelids.
Kea occupy South Island mountain and forest habitats. Their curiosity toward people creates feeding opportunities as well as risks.
Bastos and Taylor (2020) had six captive kea choose between samplers of rewarding and unrewarding tokens. The tests varied relative frequencies, physical barriers and experimenter preferences. The authors interpret the results as domain-general statistical inference. Performance varied, and only three birds favoured the biased sampler above chance in the third experiment. The work does not date this capacity's evolution or show human-equivalent probability concepts.
Origins & earliest records
The 1856 name derives from Gould's description of material in Walter Mantell's collection. This is naming history, not evolutionary origin.
Evidence & interpretation
Institutional species account and an original experimental article. The article carries a June 2020 addendum notice.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
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Kea show three signatures of domain-general statistical inference
Selected bibliography; Nature Communications 11:828; see addendum.
Family, evolution & connections
Taxonomic classification
A hierarchy of classified groups, not a chain of direct ancestors.
Source note: This profile follows New Zealand Birds Online in placing the kea in Strigopidae. Some older accounts use Psittacidae.
- orderPsittaciformes
- familyStrigopidae
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Institutional species accountKea: NZ Birds OnlineResearch access: 2026-10-07
- Scientific articleBastos and Taylor: kea inference (2020)Research access: 2026-10-07
Image credits
Attributed biological photographAn olive-brown kea standing on a rock with its hooked beak and layered wing feathers visible.
Adult kea photographed in Fiordland, New Zealand.