This poor kereru came to us after being attacked (we think) as he had more than half of all his feathers missing. He was in pain, dehydrated and unable to fly.

It took two moults before he had all his feathers back. But Scrappy had spent so much time not flying that he had forgotten how to!

We had to push him off a branch in the aviary and it was awesome to see him gain strength each week in his wings as he flew higher and higher. It was only when he could fly the full length of the aviary, turn around, and ascend/descend at will was it time for him to go.

With a full set of beautiful feathers, Scrappy was finally able to go home. A truly wonderful moment.

Sadly, we didn’t capture this on video due to technical difficulties (the camera facing wrong way!) but we still have Scrappy’s log sheet to remember him by.