A dark bluish-grey bird with a long tail and short wings, it has a pair of brightly coloured, fleshy "wattles" extending from either side of its gape to meet below the neck.

 

The North Island kōkako has blue wattles, while the South Island kōkako has orange or yellow wattles.  Male and female are similar in colour and size.

 

The male sings a song or makes clicks to attract the female .Once the male has found a mate they sing a  duet for hours and hours until they  decide that they are the perfect pair then they start making the next generation .It takes 55 days for them to make the nest .The  parents make a nest with good overhead cover so that the NewZealand falcon and other birds cant take or steal the eggs,chicks or the nest.Afte they have made a nest  the female lays 1 to 3 eggs and the female sits on them while the male goes  foraging for food.

Nesting time is from October to March.

 

The female lays up to three pinkish grey eggs,she incubates alone for about 20 days the male feeds her on the nest or sometimes near the nest and once the chicks hatch after 30 to 50 days the male and female both take turns at feeding the chicks.Once the chick has hatched it is usually bald like every other bird chick when it hatches but when it starts getting tufts of fluff they start getting there wattles but they start off as a pinky fleshy colour. The young partially remain  dependent for food from 4 months to a year.

.Once the chick is a couple months old the parents teach it how to fly, behave, and forage for food  in the wild.Once all the chicks succed to do what there parents taught them to then the parents let them become independent untill they find a mate in breeding season and then the lifecycle starts again.

 

They are known to live up to 25 years.Most pairs mate for life but there is the odd couple of pairs that find a new mate.