Watch Parrots Mess With Traffic Cones at a New Zealand Construction Site

Someone or something kept moving traffic cones in a construction zone along a popular tourist route on New Zealand’s South Island. The cones had been placed on the road at the entrance to Milford Sound in 2016 while the Te Anau, or Homer Tunnel, was undergoing maintenance, but the cones kept mysteriously moving, according to Earth Touch News. The culprit, it turned out, was some curious Keas, the world’s only alpine parrot, as the Guardian reports.

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The video is from 2016, but it’s still amusing to watch today. Traffic workers with the New Zealand Transport Agency set traffic cameras up at work sites on both ends of the one-way tunnel to see why the cones kept inexplicably moving, and discovered that young Kea parrots were the culprits. Just watch as the pandemonium of parrots shuffle the cones around:

Homer Tunnel kea developing new skills on the side (higher resolution)

I guess a pandemonium really is the best way to refer to a bunch of wily parrots, though the Keas in the video seem more mischievous than malignant. It could depend on who you ask, however, as the parrots seem to have absolutely no chill around large moving objects like cars.

The intelligent birds had been pushing the cones around the construction sites, even rerouting traffic in some cases. The agency says the Kea parrots were most likely moving the cones in an effort to draw human attention, and hopefully, human food. Crafty buggers.

The parrots’ scheme was so well thought-out, NZ workers even claimed the Keas would listen for cars coming through the tunnel before moving the cones, shuffling them in between streams of traffic.

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But despite the birds’ genius plan, agency workers began using heavier traffic cones, which the parrots couldn’t move. Back in 2016, Kea parrots were already on the endangered species list, so the agency had to stop the Keas from putting themselves at risk.

As of 2023, it’s estimated there are fewer than 7,000 Kea parrots left in the wild. At least it seems like no Keas (or traffic cones) were harmed in the making of the old video.