Salute a Two-Time Winner!

The world’s heaviest, longest-lived parrot (lifespan up to 60 years) — whose main defense against predators is to pretend to be a shrub — just won New Zealand’s Bird of the Year for an unprecedented second time (it also won in 2008). And that’s not the only come-back for the flightless, critically-endangered Kākāpō whose numbers have risen from 50 in the 1990s to 213 today. The slow-moving, green and fawn-coloured bird, aka the “mighty moss chicken”, nests on the ground, and as they are targets for predators such as cats and rats, can only survive on predator-free islands. The competition began 15 years ago and has boosted awareness of New Zealand’s unique environment and native species.