Laughing Owl

A Rare Bird Returns

More than a century after New Zealand’s Laughing Owl disappeared, its story has returned to familiar ground. One of the bird’s last recorded sightings was near South Canterbury’s Ōpihi River, close to where four Kiwi friends now make a whisky in its name.

Among the few surviving traces of this once mischievous native are seventeen preserved eggs. Their distinctive silhouette became the foundation for the packaging, turning a fragment of natural history into the brand’s defining feature. Richly detailed and considered in its presentation, the whisky has all the hallmarks of a serious single malt. But look a little closer and the owl’s famously cheeky character is never far away.

The first 1,500 owners become founding members of The Parliament, borrowing the collective noun for owls to give this long-lost native a new following.

And perhaps, the last laugh.