New Zealand’s kākāpō parrot population has reached its highest number in 75 years, after 90 new chicks were officially added to the total on 1 September 2026.
The rare, flightless parrot is critically endangered, and there are now 325 kākāpō in total.
To officially count towards the population, a young kākāpō must first reach 150 days old.
Kākāpō live in southern New Zealand and eat mostly fruit from the rimu tree. They only breed when rimu trees produce plenty of fruit, which usually happens once every two to four years.
Conservationists say a huge harvest of rimu berries this year helped lead to the record number of chicks.
Deidre Vercoe, from the Kākāpō Recovery Group, said the population had not been this high in around 75 years. “There is still a long road of recovery ahead, but ninety chicks in a single season is a record,” she said. “In the early years of recovery, it took 16 years to produce that many chicks.”
The team also relied more on remote cameras this season, instead of checking eggs and chicks by hand as often.
Kākāpō are already famous well beyond New Zealand. One nesting bird was watched by more than 100,000 people on a livestream, and the species has twice won the country’s bird of the year competition, so it’s now banned from entering again.
For now, conservationists say the kākāpō’s future is looking a little brighter.
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