DOC rangers evict ka¯ka¯ ‘intruders’
Ka¯ ka¯ are breaking into Wellington homes to breed, the Department of Conservation is warning.
Breeding season has just started but rangers have already responded to several requests to evict the unwanted tenants getting cosy in people’s homes by nesting in ceiling cavities.
DOC community ranger Lee Barry said one homeowner had noticed plastic falling from the ceiling. ‘‘It was the ka¯ka¯ starting to damage the plaster board.’’
The ka¯ka¯ are a rare species of native parrot, which was reintroduced into urban Wellington in 2002.
But the unwanted tenants are large, loud, destructive and might wake their human housemates.
Barry said if they were in a home, the birds would not go unnoticed.
‘‘Some people who had them in their Wellington flat, they said they were up quite early in the morning, making a lot of noise.’’
The amount of calls received so early in the breeding season had prompted the department to issue a warning to homeowners, she said.
Ka¯ ka¯ would pull apart wooden beams to create nests, as they planned to settle for several weeks. ‘‘They’re going to produce a lot of poo in that time . . . you just don’t want a bird in one place for such a long time.’’
Barry said people could stop ka¯ka¯ entering their homes by ensuring everything was secure.
The birds were likely to enter homes through ventilation openings or by ripping into wood, she said.
Last week, DOC biodiversity ranger David Moss crawled inside a tight roof space to relocate a nest of three eggs.
Moss said homeowners would notice that the parrots made strange noises at strange times.
‘‘It’s best for both them and their human landlords if we carefully relocate them.’’
Lead poisoning is a leading cause of death for Wellington ka¯ ka¯ , along with metabolic bone disease caused by being fed inappropriate food by people.
By nesting in the ceilings of houses, ka¯ka¯ put themselves in contact with potentially harmful materials such as glass wool insulation, treated timbers, and lead nails or plumbing, which ka¯ka¯ chew.