The Kaka [nz Parrot] And The Kuku [nz Wood Pigeon] – Funny Old Birds Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

The kuku loves domestic bliss
The kaka likes life’s turns and twists

The kuku is at its best at home
The kaka though is prone to roam

While kukus plump for picturesque
The kaka goes for picaresque

For the kuku absences are antithetic
Contrast the kaka - he’s peripatetic

Like Zorro the kaka wears a red bolero
Not so, the demure and retired kereru

The kuku is polite and workaholic
Where kakas are ever prone to frolic

At a party, you can guess who’s most shambolic
The kaka always gins without the tonic

The kuku rarely doffs its vest
While kakas often dance a wild burlesque

The kaka will raise the decibels with yakka
And soon he’ll ask his mates to haka

So all in all, the kuku’s just an early player
And it’s the kaka who’s the party-stayer

Birds of a different feather they may be.
“Have a drink! Which of them do you think is me? '

‘He kuku ki te kainga,
He kaka ki te haere.’

[“He is a wood-pigeon (kuku / kereru) when he's at home but a noisy parrot (kaka) when he's out and about.”]