Tinamou-the rare South American bird that lays shiny, iridescent eggs!

[robertparker]

Its the closest thing to the goose that lays the golden eggs that exists outside of fairytales.

The Tinamou-looks somewhat quail or partridge like with an elegant shape, but more closely related to the ratites, though not in the same family.

But the eggs are strikingly different.

Brilliant colors of purple, blue, pink and green naturally shine from tinamou eggs

Native to South America, tinamous are exceedingly rare in North America, though they breed readily in captivity. I know, because I've been looking everywhere for them.


So how much would you love to get one of these birds, eh? What would you pay to get your hands on a pair?

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Wow! That is very neat, thanks for sharing.

Found this on wikipedia:

Quote: Does the small-billed tinamou lay these eggs? Does each species lay eggs like this or only some?

 

[perchie.girl]

OMG I thought this was some kind of joke... then I looked them up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinamou

Leave it to the Americas to come up with very colorful eggs.

awesome

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

by the way

@robertparker

Welcome to Backyard Chickens....

from San Diego


deb

 

[TBirdsTheWord33]

Great! Now I need some tinamous.

 

[carrilynn87]

It's like an easter egger mixed with a guinea, cutely weird

 

[robertparker]

by the way

@robertparker


Welcome to Backyard Chickens....   from San Diego


deb

Thanks!
And @heritagegoose13 I read that each species lays a diff color of iridescent eggs
Anybody know where to get these?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I read up... they are not domesticated... there are only a few breeders here in the US. They are closer to a Rhea or Emu than they are a chicken... in a class of their own but similar to ratites because the male rears the young and they are pretty much terrestrial, or depend on running for their defense..

deb

deb

 

[robertparker]

I read up... they are not domesticated...  there are only a few breeders here in the US.  They are closer to a Rhea or Emu than they are a chicken...  in a class of their own but similar to ratites because the male rears the young and they are pretty much terrestrial, or depend on running for their defense..

deb

deb

What makes an animal domesticated?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
years sometimes centuries of living with humans.... we tend to breed for traits that we prefer.

There was originally only one breed of chicken... Red Jungle fowl... domesticated over time have given us soooooo many different breeds of chickens...

Guinea fowl are new to the domestication front... so far we have only messed with color... They pretty much retain about all their wild characteristics... except mothering. Seems that's the first thing we do to poultry... breed out broodiness...

Three animals that were first domesticated at about the same time Dogs Chickens and Pigs.

Here is a good start on reading up on the process of Domestication.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication
We all know Dogs came from wolf lineage.... I dont know much about pigs.

deb