Their diet consists of the soft parts of aquatic vegetation, grasses, clover, berries, and seeds. Most of these are usually eaten parrot fashion by holding them up to the beak in one claw. Animals, too, are eaten, and these may include insects, worms, fish (eels) and, occasionally, very young birds and birds' eggs. Pukekos sometimes damage vegetable gardens, crops, and haystacks, and these habits, plus those of eating wild ducks' eggs and their young, make them unpopular with sportsmen and farmers. The damage done, however, is often greatly exaggerated. In any event pukekos are not shot in any great numbers during their open season.
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