One of the world's rarest birds has hatched in New Zealand

This fluffy fellow is the first kakapo chick to be born in 2016, hatching this week on Anchor Island in Dusky Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand.

The chick was discovered by rangers on Thursday morning when they inspected its mum's nest. 

No sweat if you've never heard of the kakapo, also known as the night parrot — it's extremely rare (and extremely endangered), with fewer than 150 of them left in the whole world.

But these New Zealand natives are super interesting, super unusual birds. For starters, they're flightless. They're the world's heaviest parrots (they look like tubby budgerigars). And they're nocturnal.

More interestingly, the males have a bizarre booming mating call. Listen to it here:

Most interestingly, all known kakapo have names — which makes them even cuter.

The most famous kakapo is Sirocco, who was named Official Spokesbird for conservation by Kiwi prime minister John Key in 2010 and who notoriously tried to shag zoologist Mark Carwardine's head while Stephen Fry looked on.

Once abundant on New Zealand, kakapo were almost wiped out by humans and introduced predators (at one point in the 1970s, only 18 of the birds were known to exist). Since then, a recovery program has worked tirelessly to boost their numbers.

More kakapo eggs are due to hatch any moment now, a testament to the program's success — and a promise that there will be more fat green birds waddling around in future.