Lead-head nails and lead flashings on older-style buildings, such as back-country mustering huts, could have caused the demise of the juvenile kea found dead recently in an upper tributary of the Orari River.
A hunter found the dead kea and took it to the Department of Conservation's Twizel head-quarters, and biodiversity programme manager Dean Nelson sent it to Massey University.
The kea had toxic levels of lead in its kidneys and liver.
The kea was found in an extremely remote area of low human habitation but there were still real threats to the birds' survival, he said.
"As a juvenile, this bird had just recently made it past the threat posed by predators such as stoats and cats getting it in the next, only to be killed by something that is not an obvious problem."
Lead nails and flashings were really the only readily available sources of lead that a kea might decide to feast upon.
"Unfortunately, lead apparently tastes sweet to kea, hence the reason that they are inclined to chew on it," he said.
Anyone finding a dead bird of national significance should contact Doc.
