Humans appear to be in good company: the kea parrot of New Zealand has become the first non-mammal to show signs of contagious “laughter.” Kea parrots aren’t quite cracking each other up in mid-flight ...

Kea inhabit high in New Zealand’s South Island mountains, where they thrive in frigid, harsh alpine habitats. Researchers learn about kea behavior in order to help defend them better and gain insights ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. GrrlScientist writes about evolution, ecology, behavior and health. Kea, Nestor notabilis, are large parrots that live in alpine ...

New Zealand’s highly intelligent parrot, the playful kea bird, has a contagious “play call,” like human laughter, that makes other kea birds want to play more. A new study in the journal Current ...

Raoul Schwing remembers sitting on a New Zealand mountaintop, watching a kea hovering in front of him, just an arm’s reach away. The large green parrot had jumped into an updraft, and was flying into ...

Bruce, a partially beak-less Kea parrot, is giving the term "bird brained" new meaning by wow-ing scientists with his innovative self-care tools. Animal Minds/University of Auckl Bruce, a partially ...

For the first time in birds, researchers say they have found evidence that a New Zealand parrot has the avian equivalent of an infectious laugh. They call it "positive emotional contagion" — which ...

The kea has been crowned New Zealand’s Bird of the Year after two weeks of heated campaigning. These large, green mountain parrots are known for their curiosity and intelligence. Once numbering in the ...

Scientists studying kea, New Zealand’s alpine parrot, revealed that the famously mischievous birds could understand probabilities, an impressive mental feat. The pair of researchers put six birds ...

This little guy hasn't broken the mirror quite yet, despite being called a contender for world’s ugliest bird by The Daily Mail. The baby Kea parrot, named Nelson, spent his first month of life in an ...