The kakerori is remarkable for its two distinctive colour forms which are not, as was commonly believed, related to sex, but to age. All birds begin life with orange plumage, move into a transition stage of plumage in their third year and by the fourth year have acquired a uniform grey colouring. As the birds become sexually mature at one, they can breed in all three stages of plumage.
ROD HAY
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Bibliographic details
Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 31
Word Count
71The kakerori is remarkable for its two distinctive colour forms which are not, as was commonly believed, related to sex, but to age. All birds begin life with orange plumage, move into a transition stage of plumage in their third year and by the fourth year have acquired a uniform grey colouring. As the birds become sexually mature at one, they can breed in all three stages of plumage. ROD HAY Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 31
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