Well, sort of…..
Anyone who has spent time in the alpine areas of New Zealand will be familiar with the mighty Kea, New Zealand’s and in fact the Worlds only Alpine Parrot.
Clothed in muted shades of green its only when in flight, or preening, that you get to observe the brilliant under-wing orange plumage that more resembles the colour you expect from a Parrot.
Nestor notabilis - You turn your back for just one second….
But that’s not the point of this post, oh no not at all, that info is all readily available off the net. And when you do some research you will no doubt come across that other small matter of Kea’s proclivity to vandalise any and all human made objects whenever they get the opportunity!
A quick stop at Arthur’s Pass National Park (APN) after a morning shoot ended up with a gang of Kea’s descending on my car’s roof rack’s as soon as I turned away to take a couple of snaps… As you can see from the 1st image above, Kea’s posses an extremely strong and sharp beak along with some serious foot wear..
After shooing away the gang I ended up taking a quick image of one of the miscreants posing before I left and it turned out to be an image that has now been sold a few times, meaning I get to have the last laugh on the Kea.
This time… :-)
Strike a Pose!