Kaka numbers booming at Pukaha

CHEEKY BEGGARS: Kaka at Pukaha Mt Bruce.Booming numbers of kaka are great news for Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre - even if cafe staff have to be on the lookout for beggars.

"We have some quite cheeky kaka who are nesting and they're begging for food at the cafe," manager Helen Evans-Tickner said. "They are getting a little bit overzealous."

The Dominion Post has been told of a cafe worker and a child being bitten by the native parrots recently. Ms Evans-Tickner said they sometimes nipped at staff, but she had not heard of bitten customers.

Visitors enjoyed eating beside kaka perching on the cafe's bush-sheltered outside balcony, which did sometimes led to meals getting "swooped on".

One female kaka lined up three chicks beside her on the rail and squawked loudly. When staff came out to investigate, she appeared to be explaining herself: "Look, this is why I've been nicking food."

Low-flying kaka had also been "playing chicken" with people walking around the reserve. "But they never hit anyone."

Kaka were thriving at the 942-hectare, unfenced reserve 20 minutes' drive north of Masterton, with the population having grown from nine in the 1980s to about 140.

A booming kaka population in Wellington has led to exotic trees being damaged as the hungry birds dig into bark for sap and has been attributed to the success of the Zealandia bird sanctuary.

But Pukaha's close encounters of the kaka kind had not been repeated at Zealandia's cafe because its deck and balcony are covered, cafe supervisor Pooja Motee said.

"I think we will open up [the cover] in summer so maybe that will change."