Meeting the Kea

I've watched a documentary on Keas on Animal Planet and my first encounter with this bird was at the aviary in Dunedin Botanic Garden. The captive bird looked sad and very bored. The Kea is an endemic specie of parrot to New Zealand, it is one of seven parrot species.
The Kea is found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. We were driving from Te Anau to Milford Sound and were waiting for the traffic light to change at Homer Tunnel, when I spotted three birds loitering at a stop area that was covered in melting snow.Wohoo! wild Keas was all I could think as I climbed over my uncle to grab some shots of these precocious birds that have intelligence like no other bird. They can solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain objective.It didn't take me long to realize that the three had learnt that people going through the tunnel will stop and feed them. They were there for their daily handout.
I would have loved to have pulled over to the side of the road and observe the birds but we had a boat to catch.