They won’t be defying gravity anytime soon, but these flightless parrots are defying the odds: After nearly going extinct in the mid-1900s, a record 90 kakapo parrots have recently been added to the family tree.
The Kākāpō Recovery program, part of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, announced Tuesday that the official kakapo population now stands at 325 birds, a “recovery-era high” for our feathered friends Down Under.
The green, owl-faced parrots travel by foot — they’re sometimes described as having a “waddling gait,” which doubtless ruffles a few feathers — thus making them more susceptible to predators and, before conservation efforts were put into place, hunters.
But while they won’t be, well, spreading their wings with their airborne relatives, the kakapo can proudly caw about their life expectancy. In a protected environment on New Zealand’s offshore islands and mainland sanctuary, the kakapo can live up to 90 years. It’s also the heaviest parrot species, with the males among them weighing up to 8 pounds.
Kākāpō Recovery hasn’t revealed how they’ll be celebrating the successful breeding season, but surely it will involve a pretty big parro-ty.