DOC are evicting kākā 'intruders' breeding in Wellington homes

Monday, 8 October 2018

Kākā are breaking into Wellington homes to breed, the Department of Conservation has warned.

Kākā can crack open plastic vents in houses or rip through wood, the Department of Conservation have warned.

Breeding season has just started, but rangers have already responded to several requests to evict the unwanted tenants getting cosy in peoples' homes by nesting in ceiling cavities

DOC community ranger Lee Barry said one home owner had noticed plastic falling from the ceiling.

'It was the kākā starting to damage the plaster board in the ceiling.'

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The kākā are a rare species of native parrot which was re-released in to urban Wellington in 2002 in an effort to recover them.

A nest of Kākā eggs found in a roof in a house in central Wellington.

But the unwanted tenants are large, loud, destructive and might wake up their human housemates.

Barry said if they were in a home, they wouldn't 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 they received so early in breeding season prompted them to issue a warning to homeowners, she said.

Kākā would pull apart wooden beams to create nests, as they planned to settle down 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 kākā 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 the birds made strange noises at strange times.

These chicks were removed from an Aro Valley flat in 2017.

'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 kākā, along with metabolic bone disease caused by being fed inappropriate food by people, Moss said.

By nesting in ceilings, kākā put themselves in contact with potentially harmful materials such as glass wool insulation, treated timbers, and lead nails and plumbing which they chew.

Moss said people should not feed the kākā.

'Spending time around buildings waiting to be fed also increases the chance they'll mess about with lead nails or other toxic products.'