Flightless bird
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Flightless birds are birds that have evolved the inability to fly. There are about 40 species in existence today, the best known being the ratites (ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea and kiwi) and the penguins.
The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island Rail (length 12.5 cm, weight 34.7 g). The largest (both heaviest and tallest) flightless bird, which is also the largest living bird, is the ostrich (2.7 m, 156 kg).
Flightless birds are the easiest to take care of in captivity because they do not have to be caged. Ostriches were once farmed for their decorative feathers. Today they are raised for meat and for their skins, which are used to make leather.
There were also other families of flightless birds, such as the now extinct Phorusrhacidae, that evolved to be powerful terrestrial predators.
Many domesticated birds, such as the domestic chicken, and domestic duck, have lost the ability to fly, though their wild ancestors, the red junglefowl and mallard, respectively, are perfectly capable of flight.
See also
- Feathered dinosaurs
- Origin of birds: Secondary flightlessness in dinosaurs
- List of extinct birds
- Gastornis
- Phorusrhacidae
- Ratite