GoPro keeps recording as parrot steals it from tourists and flies off

By Trevor Mogg February 6, 2022

A GoPro camera captured a bird’s-eye view of a New Zealand national park when a mischievous parrot nabbed the device and flew off.

Kea Flies away with GoPro

The camera belonged to a family on vacation in Fiordland National Park on the country’s South Island. While resting at a hut after completing a walking trail, one of the family’s children set the GoPro down to record several kea parrots that were pottering about nearby.

Known for their impish nature, it wasn’t long before one of the birds grabbed the action camera in its beak and made a dash for it, flying away with its buddies close behind.

With the device still recording, the GoPro captured some impressive footage of the surrounding landscape as the bewinged bandit retreated to a safe spot well away from the family, who at that moment must’ve thought they’d seen the last of their camera.

After dropping the camera onto a rock, the footage shows the curious kea pecking away at the GoPro, apparently performing its own durability test on the famously robust device. The bird then manages to tear a strip of plastic off the casing before one of the family’s children can be heard calling out, “I’ve found it,” prompting the kea to abandon the camera and flee.

Speaking to local broadcaster Seven Sharp about the attempted robbery, mom Alex Verheul said they were able to track down the camera by following the kea’s general flight path and then heading toward a spot where they could hear the birds causing a commotion.

Whether her son is a mighty fast runner or a portion of the video was cut isn’t clear, but Alex acknowledged that they lucked out with awesome footage featuring the bird when it could so easily have only shown the sky and a rock.

The story brings to mind a similar incident in 2013 when an Australian sea eagle made off with a motion-sensor camera set up by wildlife rangers hoping to capture footage of crocodiles. In that case, the bird of prey flew a colossal 70 miles with the camera, capturing aerial footage of the outback along the way.

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