Banding the Babies.

My first nest of kaka chicks to be checked, chipped and banded

Our first nest of kaka babies have been banded. I was privileged to be able to attend and help out. As our kaka North Island parrot population has done so well since the first birds were were brought from Auckland Zoo they are no longer going to be individually banded (not enough colour combinations). The 500th chick has just been banded. From now on they are going to wear a band depicting the year of their birth only. 2013 is going to be light blue.

Bronwyn with the 500th kaka chick to be banded at Zealandia.                               Photo by Alfred Kaka

I was volunteering when the first cohort of about fourteen birds were brought to Zealandia in 2002. They were held in an aviary as they adjusted to their new surroundings and I was a part of the team to care for them. I took food in, counted them and checked they were OK. I heard their 'wolf whistle' alarm call for the first time. A zoo keeper had taught it to one kaka who taught to his mates. They have taught their mates and their kids and now it is known as the 'Wellington dialect' and  rings out daily throughout the city.

There were five in the nest ready to be checked, chipped and banded. My job was to be ready with a bag to pop over the chick's head as the handler brought it out. Once the chick was in the bag the handler took over. He carried it up to the person whose job it was to hold the chick while the handler got statistics and feather samples. My job now was to be recorder.
Linton called out measurements and I repeated them as I wrote them down. He measured the beak's width and length, the length of the wing and tail and the length of a tarsus or toe. Then feather samples were collected for DNA and disease analysis. A blue band was placed on the handiest leg and a check for mites was done. Then last but not least a microchip was inserted under the skin in the neck. I had imagined a tiny square biscuit shaped thing but of course that would be uncomfortable indeed. In fact it is a tiny glass vial which is placed in a syringe gun and injected. Monitoring will occur at feeding stations. When the kaka comes in for sugar water it will poke its head through a plastic circle which will record who is who. The chip was checked and I wrote the number down.

The preferred band of fashion this year is of a sky blue colour

The chicks, other than wriggling a bit, coped well with the intrusion. They got their own back by pooing on tJudi whose job it was to hold them still. Their Mum, BY-W was an interested bystander. She perched on a branch quite close to us and watched. She did not worry about her chicks being handled and remained happy and calm. This is not always the case. Some mothers vocally let the handlers know their disapproval which can set the whole valley off screeching and wolf whistling.

When all the information needed had been gathered the chick was popped back into the nest box and the next one was lifted out. It took awhile to do our five chick checks but I thoroughly enjoyed being part of it.

I also learned that 2013 has been an extra successful breeding season with nests of four, five or six chicks being reared. As a result of this, for the first time, chicks are being transferred elsewhere before they fledge. Young kaka are being transferred to Mt Bruce in the Wairarapa to enhance that population.

A Zealandia kaka chick having a medical check at Pukaha Mt Bruce which will be its new home.
Photo from Alfie Kaka's Facebook page

It is wonderful to think that Zealandia's kaka population has grown so much that we can now start translocating them out. Many of our founding birds from Wellington Zoo are still going strong, the most well known one being Alfie. Now their progeny are helping to reverse the endangered status of  kaka throughout the North Island.

The chicks will now be left in their nest boxes to fledge with no more human intervention.