Category Birds, Amazing Birds

The greater rhea is a flightless bird native to South America. It is the largest bird in both North and South America and is related to ostriches and emus. It is 4 feet tall and weighs about 26 kg. It is much smaller than ostriches (which are 9 feet tall and weigh 140 kg) and emus (which are 7 feet tall and weigh 56 kg).

The greater rhea has a light-coloured head and neck with beautiful blue eyes. It has fawn-coloured feathers on its body and powerful long legs, which it uses to outrun predators. Even though its large wings are useless for flight, they are used for balance and for changing direction as the bird runs.

Rheas are opportunistic feeders that eat plants, fruits, seeds and also insects, lizards, birds and other small game. Unfortunately rheas also like to eat crops, which annoy many South American farmers. As more open grasslands are converted to farmland, this problem is likely to become even more severe.

In the wild, the greater rhea lives for about 10 years. Did you know that in August 2000 a captive group of rheas escaped a farm in Germany and established a population in Northern Germany? You could call them pioneer rheas like the pioneers that settled America!

Rheas are farmed for their eggs and meat. Their skins are used in the manufacture of leather and hunting has reduced their numbers considerably. Today, regulations are in place that limits both hunting and farming the greater rhea for commercial use. This species is listed as ‘Near Threatened’ by the IUCN.

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The emu is a large, flightless bird that is native to Australia. It is the second tallest bird in the world, growing to a height of about 7 feet and weighing around 56 kg. It is grey in colour with a bluish head and gentle-looking eyes. Did you know that the emu is the only bird in the world with calf muscles in its legs? Even though it cannot fly, its sturdy legs help it run at a top speed of 48 km/h and jump 7 feet vertically up!

The emu has three toes on its feet, one of which is a long dagger like claw that is potentially dangerous. The emu however, is not known to kill humans, though it will defend itself if provoked.

The emu eats plants and insects and can store food as fat for times when supplies run low. It also has a sixth sense for finding water and travels many miles on foot to find it.

Emu fathers are very devoted. The female emu lays a clutch of eggs and then leaves the parenting to the male. The male emu bird incubates the eggs over a period of 50 days, during which it does not eat or drink! It loses up to a third of its body weight during this time and then looks after the hatched chicks for 2 years till they become independent.

Did you know that in 1932, Australia waged a war against emus? And lost? Soldiers were called in to help eradicate a group of 20,000 emus who were eating up wheat fields in Western Australia. After making several attempts to kill the emus, the soldier accepted defeat and returned home! Even machine gun fire proved ineffective against these highly intelligent and strategic birds who evaded every tactic employed against them!

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) lists the resourceful and resilient emu as a species of ‘Least Concern’, as its populations are stable across Australia.

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If you like dinosaurs, the cassowary will blow your mind! Considered a descendent of the extinct velociraptor, this bird has 12.7 centimetres long dagger like toes on its feet and a kick that would flatten Bruce Lee!

Native to Australia like the kangaroo and the koala, the cassowary is a striking specimen. It has a bright blue head with a fibrous hollow helmet-like casque and a long blue neck with colourful wattles. It is covered with rough black feathers that look like hair from a distance. It has long, thick and powerful legs that are covered with armour-like scutes. Each of its feet has three toes, with the innermost toe sporting a long dagger-like nail capable of disembowelling an unwary intruder with a single slash. Up close, it looks more suited to the world of Jurassic Park than normal life! Not for nothing is this bird called the most dangerous bird on earth!

It is the third tallest bird in the world after the ostrich and the emu, and the second heaviest bird after the ostrich. It can grow to a height of 5 feet 6 inches and weigh about 60 kg. Although it cannot fly, it runs pretty fast, reaching a speed of 50 km/h.

This bird is solitary in nature and loves to eat fruits. So much that some fruits are named after it – such as the cassowary plum. It likes to toss fruits in the air and swallow them whole. It will also eat plants, fungi, insects and small invertebrates when available.

Female cassowaries are larger than the males and make very carefree mothers. For instance, they will lay about 4 eggs and then leave the entire burden of parenting on the male! The male cassowary incubates the dark green eggs for 50 days and then looks after the chicks for nine months till they learn to become independent.

This incredible bird is listed as ‘Endangered’ and suffers from a loss of habitat and human encroachment.

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You may have heard of singing birds but have you heard of dancing birds? The American woodcock is perhaps one of the most comical and cute dancing birds found in nature. Unlike the stately peacock which shakes its magnificent tail in an elegant rain dance, the homely little woodcock walks with a typical bobbing gait that looks like it is grooving to ‘Hakuna Matata’ from the movie Lion King!

This rounded, fluffy bird has a combination of brown and black feathers (rather like our own sparrow) except that it has a freakishly long beak! It uses the beak to dig out its favourite food – earthworms. Its funny walk is also supposed to make insects move on the ground, making them easier to spot.

If it perceives a threat, it freezes in response till the threat passes. Its eyes are set far back on its head, giving it a panoramic vision that helps detect predators. This biological adaptation has actually pushed its brain down and in an upside down position relative to other birds! Also, compared to other birds, woodcocks migrate at a leisurely pace. They hold the record for the slowest flight speed for a migrating bird at 8 km/h.

The woodcock usually makes its nest on the ground, concealed among fields with adequate ground cover and in shrub thickets. The female typically lays about 1 to 5 eggs and incubation lasts for 22 days. The male takes no responsibility for the chicks and does not help feed the female or offer any sort of protection to the family (rather a bad example of a parent!).

The woodcock is found in forests, fields and meadows in the eastern half of North America including Canada. It is considered the king of game birds in America and is hunted for its tasty meat in these countries.

Fortunately this plump fuzz-ball is still found in large numbers in America and is listed as ‘Least Vulnerable’ by the IUCN.

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The frigatebird is an extraordinary bird. It is a sea-faring bird but has a major disadvantage. Its feathers are not waterproof. It would drown if it landed on the water. So it has developed a method to stay aloft while flying over the sea for weeks at a stretch without touching down!

It makes use of the warm air currents that rise up from the ocean which form cumulus clouds. It is the only bird that deliberately flies through these clouds. It does this to make use of the updraft of air currents in the cumulus clouds which help it to fly using minimum effort.

When it needs a meal, instead of swooping down to the ocean to catch fish, it bullies other birds into dropping their catch and neatly steals it mid-air! This is why these birds are also called the pirates of the sky! In appearance too they look somewhat like villains. The frigate bird has sleek black feathers, a long hooked bill and a deeply forked tail. The male adult also sports a bright red throat pouch – rather like a red scarf on a swashbuckling pirate!

It has an 8-foot wingspan and has the largest wing surface area compared to its body weight, of any bird. What this means is that the frigate bird’s wings can make the maximum use of ocean currents and fly for longer periods of time. It thus flies higher and faster than any other sea bird. It reaches a top speed of 153 km/h during flight and soars well above 4000 m above sea level! This altitude is unbelievably high for a seafaring bird.

There are 5 species of frigatebirds currently in the world, of which 2 species are critically endangered, while 3 species are widespread (listed as Least Concern).

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Spotting a white-throated needletail swift is not easy. They do not hop about on the ground for one thing. In fact they never land on the ground if they can help it. And they are one of the fastest birds in the sky, reaching a top speed of around 170 km per hour! So it may be difficult to get a good look at them as they whizz past.

This greyish brown swift has a white throat patch, as well as a whitish patch on its back. It measures around 21 cm and weighs 120 grams. It is found in Australia, Central Asia, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain and Siberia. It is called needletail due to its tapering tail, which is not forked as with other swifts.

It builds its nest in rock crevices, cliffs or high up in tall trees. It avoids hunting on the ground and catches its food on the wing. It eats insects like beetles, flies, bees, locusts, grasshoppers, cicadas and moths. The needletail has very short legs which it uses only for clinging to vertical surfaces.

It constructs a cup-like nest made of twigs and straw stuck together with its own saliva. The female lays 2 to 7 eggs and both parents incubate the eggs for a period of around 23 days. This bird was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801.

It is listed under ‘Least Concern’ on the IUCN Red List.

Picture Credit : Google