Observation #16169
- When
- 2023-01-07 11:30:00
- Where
- Cockburn Incline, Lower South Island
- What
- Sighted 1 bird
- Status
- Verified (Public)
- Who
- Christina Abramowicz
Details
Location Details
East side of Homer tunnel. On the road, on cars.
Comments
Silly kea are too ready to ‘earn’ food from people. And tourists are too eager to provide whatever. I’m a tourist who is also working on securing a job in Aotearoa and a veterinarian. I will be moving to Aotearoa this year.
Behaviour
I was the last car coming out of the Homer tunnel heading towards Te Anau. I spotted this bird on a vans side view mirror by the median. He was chewing. I slowed to a stop and put my window down. The van had their windows down. He hopped over to the drivers side window and the driver appeared to get something and then I saw her put a cherry (or something exceptionally cherry size/shape/color) in her palm and start to put her cherry offering out the window. I yelled to Please not feed the kea. She ignored me and I repeated myself louder and banged on my car door. She pulled her hand back, the kea flew a small distance away, the westbound light turned green and cars slowly went on while the kea walked along the median. He then jumped on my side view mirror and tried to inspect my car (some interest in the rubber, mostly looking inside for kai). I slowly drove forward and he hopped onto the road again. After a bit of car and road hopping along various stopped cars, he finally flew down to the parking lot. He continued inspection of tourist vehicles including mine when I stopped there. He managed to find a potato chip in the corner of the parking lot and after he took an initial bite and the rest fell to the ground I rushed him and he took off and I picked up the pieces, getting at least 3/4 of the chip. He flew a short distance to inspect even more cars, then over to the lodge/transit building that’s right there by the tunnel and looked ready to follow a human inside. The person carefully closed the door on him, keeping him out. After a few minutes of hopping outside that building he returned to parked car inspections, then flew off to the north. Also, he was very comfortable leaning into car windows, especially those without humans.
