Croatia celebrates Koki the cockatoo’s 70th birthday at Brijuni Park

Koki, Brijuni National Park’s most famous resident, marked his 70th birthday on May 31 with a public celebration that linked the cockatoo’s story to World Parrot Day. The birthday program stretched beyond a simple tribute, with guided tours through the Safari Park and pheasantry, family activities and exhibitions built around the bird that has become one of Brijuni’s defining symbols.

The park says Koki was born in 1956, making 2026 his 70th birthday, and describes him as Tito’s well-known parrot and one of the rare yellow-crested cockatoos said to live up to 100 years. That long lifespan is a big part of why Koki has remained such a fixture on the Brijuni Islands, where his presence has outlasted generations of visitors. The bird’s legend is tied to the years when Josip Broz Tito used Brijuni as his official summer residence from 1949 until his death in 1980.

Koki’s story has also grown into a public history lesson. A 2025 Berlinale description placed him inside the diplomacy-and-entertainment atmosphere of Tito’s Brijuni era, reinforcing the way one bird became part of the islands’ wider identity. On the park’s own listings, Koki is not just a resident but the most famous resident, a reminder that some parrots become community figures as much through personality and constancy as through rarity.

The timing mattered. World Parrot Day is observed every year on May 31 and was established in 2004, with conservation groups using it to spotlight the threats parrots face in the wild and in captivity. World Animal Protection says those threats include habitat loss and illegal wildlife trade. A 2026 World Parrot Day article put the scale in sharp relief, saying there are more than 350 parrot species and nearly one third are threatened with extinction.

That is what made Koki’s 70th birthday feel larger than a park celebration. A cockatoo that can live for decades becomes part of the fabric around it, whether that fabric is a national park, a tourist stop or a household. For companion parrot care, Koki’s milestone is a blunt reminder that long-lived birds demand durable commitments, stable care and enrichment built to last well beyond the first years of ownership. On Brijuni, the birthday star made that truth impossible to miss.