Kakapo in a Mossy Island Forest

Kakapo in a Mossy Island Forest is an original illustration set in Rakiura, New Zealand. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is oceanic — mild, wet through the year.

A heavy flightless parrot with moss-green mottled plumage walks across a moss-covered log at twilight. Damp forest closes in around it, dense with ferns and hanging moss, and the light is fading and blue.

Why did this parrot lose the ability to fly?

A parrot that walks, weighs several kilos and climbs rather than flies could only evolve where nothing hunted on the ground — an island isolated long enough for flight to become an unnecessary expense. The mottled green is camouflage against exactly this mossy forest floor. Nocturnal habits and dense wet understorey go together.

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