Vegetation associated with kakapo (Strigops habroptilusGray) in Sinbad Gully, Fiordland, New Zealand

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Abstract
The kakapo, a flightless, nocturnal, browsing parrot, is now known only from a few birds in the Milford Sound area where the forests are mostly unmodified by introduced browsing mammals. In February 1975 three male birds had courtship territories at 600–900m altitude in the head of Sinbad Gully, where sleep slopes, waterfalls, and avalanches largely determine the vegetation pattern. The three courtship territories comprised track and bowl systems in ridge-crest silver beech (Nothofagus menziesii) forest. A garden territory or “kakapo garden” is described; it is a scrub-covered debris fan, floristically very rich particularly with berry-bearing shrubs, where kakapo seem to feed. Nearby areas of forest and scrub, which show no sign of use by kakapo, may not be used by the birds because of lack of food or shelter.