New Zealand’s Kakapo Have Their Best Breeding Season on Record

The kakapo is one of the world’s most extraordinary birds: a large, moss-green, flightless parrot that is nocturnal, can live for decades, and exists only in New Zealand. It is also one of the most endangered, having fallen to just a few dozen individuals before an intensive recovery program began rebuilding the population. In 2026, that long effort produced its most spectacular result yet — the best breeding season on record.

At least 95 chicks hatched during the 2026 season, surpassing the previous record set in 2019. The breeding effort was remarkably productive: dozens of nests produced hundreds of eggs, of which many were fertile and more than a hundred hatched. With the total kakapo population standing at roughly 235 birds, a single season adding so many healthy youngsters represents a major boost for a species that has clung to survival on a handful of predator-free islands in southern New Zealand.

“It is also one of the most endangered, having fallen to just a few dozen individuals before an intensive recovery program began rebuilding the population.”

Kakapo breeding is unusual and unpredictable. The birds only nest in years when the native rimu tree produces a heavy crop of berries, a phenomenon known as masting that may happen only every few years. When the rimu masts, as it did ahead of the 2026 season, the kakapo respond by breeding. Conservationists with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, working alongside Ngāi Tahu, monitor every bird closely, with each kakapo wearing a small transmitter so its location and activity can be tracked.

Challenges remain, including low fertility and the constant need for human intervention such as supplementary feeding, artificial incubation, and veterinary care for vulnerable chicks. But every successful hatching, as DOC staff have noted, is a reminder of how far the program has come. From a population that once seemed destined for extinction, the kakapo is slowly but steadily climbing back — and a record-breaking crop of fuzzy green chicks is the most heartening proof yet that this beloved parrot has a future.