Small flightless bird. What birds can't fly? Benefits of Flying Birds

Here are a few birds that can't fly.

For example...

cormorant

This is the Galapagos flightless cormorant. A bird from the pelican order, cormorant family. The cormorant is the only bird in the family that has completely lost the ability to fly. As a result, it reaches a fairly large size, being the largest cormorant species on Earth. Due to their lack of flight ability, these birds are easy prey for introduced predators such as dogs, cats, rats and wild boars. Today there are only about 1600 individuals of this species.

Outwardly, cormorants resemble ducks, differ only in short, as if chopped off wings.

Since the flightless great cormorant cannot swim from the mainland to the islands (when fishing, it never swims more than 100 meters from the coast), the question arises: where could it come from? Darwin suggested that it descended from great cormorants that flew to the islands and gradually lost its ability to fly. We now understand that such changes occurred as a result of mutation or genetic copying error. This mutation could have been detrimental to birds, but was beneficial to the great cormorants that live on this particular island.3

This situation reminds us of the story of flightless beetles on windy islands. Such beetles are more likely to survive there, while flying beetles may be blown far beyond the islands. Or perhaps this is just an example of the diminishing influence of natural selection - without the presence of predators on the mainland and with an abundance of food in the sea, the loss of the ability to fly is not as critical as the loss of sight of cave dwellers over generations.5 In any case, this is not an example of evolution ; a mutation in the great cormorant that renders it unable to fly is an example of the loss of genetic information. "Evolution in action" requires changes that result in new genetic information.

Tristan Shepherd

In the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean on the island of Inaccessible, belonging to the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. with an area of ​​just over 10 km, the smallest flightless bird lives - the Tristan shepherd. This species usually weighs about 30 grams and has a length of 17 cm. Here, on Inaccessible, the bird is not at all threatened by predators.

Tristan shepherds are distributed throughout the island, but prefer to live in small groups in open pastures and hide in fern bushes. During the breeding season, from October to January, you can see the nest of the Tristan shepherd. It is carefully constructed from plants and hidden under a wicker canopy. And in order to get through the dense vegetation to their nests, small birds make original grassy tunnels up to 50 cm long. Tristan shepherds feed on insects, but they will not refuse berries or seeds either.

Previously, flightless birds even smaller than the Tristan shepherd lived on Earth. So, Stephen's bushwren lived on Stevens Island. Their habitat was also free from predators until the lighthouse keeper's cat appeared there and killed the whole species.

Ecologists fear that the Tristan shepherd boy may also have enemies who will exterminate his small population. But today these birds are only threatened by periodic flooding of their nests.

Kakapo

This large bird - kakapo, or owl parrot, (Strigops habroptilus) - is the only parrot that has forgotten how to fly in the process of evolution. It lives only in the southwestern part of the South Island (New Zealand), where it hides in the dense thickets of the forest. It is there, under the roots of trees, that this parrot makes a hole for itself. He spends the whole day in it and only after sunset does he leave there to go in search of food - plants, seeds and berries.

Prior to the discovery of the South Island by European settlers, the owl parrot had no natural enemies. And since the bird had no need to escape from anyone, it simply lost the ability to fly. Today, kakapo can only plan from a small height (20-25 meters).

At the same time, owl parrots lived next door to the Maori, the indigenous inhabitants of the islands of New Zealand, who hunted them, but caught only as many birds as they could eat. Then the kakapo was a fairly numerous species, but the Maori began to cut down areas of the forest in order to grow sweet potatoes "kumara", yams and taro (the tubers of this tropical plant are eaten) on the vacated land. Thus, they unwittingly deprived the parrots of their habitat.

The number of the owl parrot gradually decreased, but the birds were in critical danger with the arrival of European settlers, who brought with them cats, dogs, ermines and rats. Adult kakapo managed to escape from new predators, but they were unable to save their eggs and chicks. As a result, by the 1950s, only 30 owl parrots remained on the island.

From that moment on, the hunting of kakapo and their export from New Zealand was completely banned. Scientists placed some individuals in nature reserves and began to collect their eggs to protect them from predators. In specially designated rooms, kakapo eggs were placed under hens, who hatched them as if they were their own. Today, a unique bird is listed in the Red Book. Its number has ceased to decrease and even began to gradually increase.

Grebes are waterfowl that look like ducks. They got such an unpleasant name for the disgusting taste of meat, but they were still hunted for valuable feathers. Not all grebes have forgotten how to fly, although they are extremely reluctant to do so. Most prefer to escape from danger by diving into the water.

Galapagos flightless cormorants are not the most numerous representatives of their family, only 1,500 individuals remain on their native islands. But they are champions in size, and they dive even better than other cormorants who have not forgotten how to flap their wings. Unfortunately, it is not difficult to catch them on land, which led to a decrease in the population.

Nandu are the largest birds in South America, very similar to ostriches and emus, but not related to them. They run superbly, reaching speeds of up to 60 km / h, sometimes spreading their huge wings for balance. Nandu males are known for their unusual mating ritual - they mate with as many females as possible, then lay their eggs in a huge nest and hatch them personally.

Emus are the second largest birds on the planet after ostriches, living in the expanses of Australia. In addition to the obvious talents for running, they are able to fiercely defend themselves from enemies, kicking them and cutting them with their claws. There are cases when an emu kicked a man's bones and tore apart metal wire fences.

Cassowaries are brightly colored inhabitants of the tropics in New Guinea. You don’t run much in the jungle, so they mostly prefer to hide or fight. Locals warn tourists to stay away from unusual birds - angry cassowaries can inflict deep wounds on people, and such attacks happen up to 200 times a year.

Tristan shepherds are the smallest flightless birds on Earth, settled on a volcanic island with the speaking name Impregnable. Because of the steep cliffs, it is almost impossible to land on the island from the sea, and therefore the tiny black birds inhabiting it are in relative safety.

Ostriches are the largest birds in the world, up to 270 cm high and weighing up to 160 kg, dissecting the African savannas at speeds up to 70 km/h. Contrary to the old myth, they do not hide their heads in the sand, although they can hide for a while, clinging to the ground. People actively breed ostriches because of their valuable skin, tasty meat and eggs.

Emperor penguins are exactly the kind of birds we usually think of when we think of penguins. Clumsy on land, completely devoid of the ability to fly, but excellent swimmers and diving to a depth of 560 meters. Unlike other species of penguins, they do not build nests, hatching eggs in a special leather "pocket".

Kakapos are unique parrots from New Zealand that have forgotten how to fly due to millions of years of safe isolation. They are active at night, for which they received their second name - “owl parrot”. They almost died out due to cats, dogs and rats brought to the islands by humans. Only a negligible number of individuals have survived - about 200, which are carefully protected by ecologists.

Kiwi is a living symbol of New Zealand, giving the name to the fruit of the same name. Their feathers are more like wool, and there is no tail at all. Despite their harmless appearance, the formidable kiwis are quite capable of defending themselves from predators using very strong legs with sharp claws. Due to human activity, they have already begun to die out, but people realized it in time. Now the number of kiwi is growing again.

Unfortunately, due to human activities, many birds that have lost the ability to fly have become extinct. The entire population of dodos, for example, was eaten, because they forgot how not only to fly, but also to run. Some birds were destroyed by other animals, such as cats and rats, brought by people to places where such predators never existed. For those who have not lost their mobility and aggressiveness, extermination, as a rule, does not threaten - try to catch up with an ostrich on land or a penguin in the water. What kind of flightless birds can the planet boast today?

A bird that cannot fly is perceived as strange as a bird that can swim. Why do we need wings if they cannot lift into the air? However, there are many birds in the world that cannot fly: ostriches running across the expanses of Africa, penguins living on the ice coast of Antarctica, kiwi in New Zealand.

Although, of course, when compared with the number of species of flying birds, there are very few incompetent people in the world. This is natural, because it is easier for those who can fly to survive in this cruel world.

Benefits of Flying Birds

If a formidable lion sneaks up on a gazelle, then the only thing it can do is try to run away. And if a cat wants to catch a sparrow, then he can, flapping his wings, make a vertical take-off and immediately be completely safe. Those who can fly have other advantages as well. In search of food, you can fly long distances, and this is much more profitable than scouring for food on the ground. Knowing how to fly, you can arrange a nest for raising offspring at such a height where a dangerous enemy will not reach the chicks.

The fact that birds can fly has helped them become the second largest class of vertebrates. There are about 8,500 species of birds in the world, and only 4,000 species of mammals (one of them is you and me). The most numerous and successfully surviving type of animal is insects, there are almost 1 million species of them (by the way, almost all of them can fly).