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Results from an analysis of plant remains found in faecal droppings of kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) collected from 1981 to 1998 on Codfish Island (Whenua Hou) and Stewart Island, were analysed statistically to identify patterns in the birds’ diet related to breeding. Females were more likely to have eaten podocarp fruit or leaves of trees or shrubs; males to have eaten fern and Lycopodium rhizomes, monocots (in breeding years), and manuka fruit (in non-breeding years). Podocarp fruits were much more prevalent in kakapo diets in breeding than in non-breeding years. When podocarp fruits were available in breeding years, kakapo were less likely to have eaten several other foods. Conversely, Blechnum fern fronds appeared more frequently in the droppings of females in breeding than in non-breeding years. As podocarp fruits increased in prevalence in the diets of both males and females during the summers of breeding years, the incidence of many other foods declined. The incidence of Hall’s totara leaf in the diet of females increased during summer in non-breeding years, but decreased in breeding years.