Superstar parrot population hits 75 year high

Brace yourself bird lovers, this one is certainly going to make you very flappy!

Have you heard of the kākāpō parrot? It's a super popular species of the bird that's so heavy, it can't fly.

Despite being on the critically endangered list, there has been good news this year, as conservationists say its population has hit a 75 year high.

Imagine you're so quick that you're not allowed to race, or so good at spelling that you're banned from tests.

Well that's sort of what happened with the kākāpō. The parrot is native to New Zealand, and won the country's bird of the year competition twice - so was banned from taking part to give other birds a chance.

But their popularity has spread much further than New Zealand.

A live stream of one of the rare parrots in her nest was watched by more than 100,000 people around the world.

Ninety chicks were officially added to the kākāpō population on 1 September, taking the total number to 325.

For a young kākāpō to officially count towards the total number of the species, they need to reach 150 days old.

The species, that lives in southern New Zealand, eat mainly fruit from the rimu tree and only breed and have chicks when this tree produces its fruit. This only happens once every two to four years.

This year's high number of births is thought to be down to a big harvest of rimu berries.

Deidre Vercoe, is part of the Conservation team which is trying to help the species recovery, she says "the last time the population is thought to have exceeded 300 birds may have been as long as 75 years ago".

She said: "There is still a long road of recovery ahead, but ninety chicks in a single season is a record. In the early years of recovery, it took 16 years to produce that many chicks."

Conservationists say there could be other factors in this year's success.

The Kākāpō Recovery Group also tried reducing the number of egg and chick checks during the season, relying more on remote nest technology.