The 2026 kākāpō breeding season, the biggest on record, has come to an end with a bumper number of kākāpō chicks produced. The youngest chick has just passed 150 days old, a milestone that marks its independence.

"We had 90 chicks reach that milestone," reports Deidre Vercoe, operations manager for the Department of Conservation's Kākāpō Recovery Programme, who is delighted with the success.

Those 90 chicks are officially added to the kākāpō population on Monday, taking the critically endangered night parrot from 235 birds to 325.

Vercoe told RNZ's Kākāpō Files podcast that "to blow through that 300 population mark just knocks my socks off. Even as I say it now I think 'really? 325 - has that actually happened?' But it is true, it is fantastic."

When the Kākāpō Recovery Programme began in 1995 there were just 51 living kākāpō. Kākāpō only breed every two to four years, so it's taken a while to get to the point where the population can increase by a third in just a single breeding season.