Kiwi Characteristics

Kiwi have many weird and wonderful features thanks to New Zealand's ancient isolation and lack of mammals. It is thought they evolved to occupy a habitat and lifestyle that elsewhere in the world would be filled by a mammal, and their one-off evolutionary design holds all sorts of biological records.

What’s so unusual?

Kiwi are flightless – their Latin species name is Apteryx, which means wingless. They belong to an ancient group of birds that can’t fly – the ratites. Because they can’t fly, how they arrived in New Zealand is not completely clear.

Kiwi habits and physical characteristics are so like a mammal the bird is sometimes referred to as an honorary mammal. It has feathers like hair, nostrils at the end of its beak and an enormous egg.

Most kiwi are nocturnal birds, like many of New Zealand’s native animals. Their calls pierce the forest air at dusk and dawn.

Kiwi are omnivores. Discover what foods they find with their unusual beak.

Even though kiwi are unusual enough, tall stories abound about the bird.

Strategic Plans & Docs

The Department of Conservation has formal strategies and plans to guide how kiwi are managed.

Kiwi Life Cycle

Kiwi chicks emerge as fully feathered mini adults, and can live for 60 years. Find out about the kiwi life cycle.

Make a Donation

There are several ways to make a donation to help save kiwi.

Did You Know?

Just how kiwi got to New Zealand remains a mystery. Were they already around when New Zealand broke away from Antarctica and Australia millions of years ago? Did they walk here, using long-gone islands as stepping-stones? Or could they once fly?