Known only as Bill, he is easy to spot among the other birds at Nik Hurring's Project Kereru rehabilitation aviary - he is the plump one - but a bit of muffin top is the least of his problems.
Bill's problems are not caused by crashing into a window or failing basic fledging classes like most of the others around him. He just has bad manners.
To be fair, a lot of it is due to his upbringing - having been raised at Wellington Zoo where he turned up as 2-week-old chick a year ago. He never left.
He now has a few obnoxious habits that will turn heads - plucking hairs from scalps is a favourite one.
Ms Hurring has also learned not to wear open sandals because toes are fair game as well. He also does a good rendition of a zipper, although where that came from is a mystery.
''It must have been something he heard every day at the zoo.''
Her goal is to turn Bill back into a wild pigeon. Landing on shoulders, pecking toes and being overly social with humans are not the traits Ms Hurring is looking for.
''All things that aren't really ideal for a wild kereru to be doing really.''
Over the past two months he has been getting his daily medicine - the silent treatment - and is slowly getting to the point where he is less dependent on people.
For Ms Hurring it was about ''trying to ignore him and not let him bond with me and trying not to handle him and minimal visitation. He spends all day, every day with the wild birds.''
She hoped Bill would be ready to be released back into the wild soon after Christmas.
