New Zealand Kiwi - I want some!

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gryeyes

gryeyes

Covered in Pet Hair & Feathers
10 Years
Sep 22, 2009
15,506
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My slice of heaven in Somerset, CA
I've been watching "Mutant Planet" and I want a Kiwi (bird).

Flightless, 80 day incubation (by the males), hatch fully feathered! The poor hen carries her huge egg INSIDE for 10 days and the egg is nearly the size of her body; she's very uncomfortable until she lays it in a safe spot, then she walks away. Not broody at all - but her mate is!

Apparently they are very long-lived: 30 years! And they lay once a year (at least that's what I surmised by the program mentioning they live 30 years and mated pairs can raise 30 chicks over their lifetimes).

Of course I don't really want to add Kiwis to my flock, but aren't they interesting? Their nostrils are at the END of their long beaks. :lol:
 
Too bad they aren't allowed... I love Kiwis! I have been obsessed with them for like three years and they are one of my favorite birds! Have you ever seen pics of a white Kiwi? They are ADORABLE!
 
The Kakapo, a nine pound flightless parrot also seemed like a nifty pet. :lol:

Especially because I've lived where feral parrots - in flocks - have grown from escaped parrots. You gotta know when a parrot escapes, the owner is heartbroken.


:/ I bet even I can outrun a fat parrot.
 
Gotta love Kakapos! New Zealand is known as the "Land of the Birds" due to the wide variety of species that live there. It is a beautiful country too. In fact, if I had to move to any country, it would be New Zealand.
 
I love Kakapo parrots. :love They look so fuzzy.

New Zealand is full of interesting critters. How about the Moa? Imagine having a 500-pound, 12-foot-tall tinamou guarding your flock! Too bad Moa are extinct. :/
 
Last edited:
Shadow Rabbit, I would move to New Zealand too! It's such a wild, unique, and beautiful country, plus my favorite movies were filmed there!
I love Kiwis. Unfortunately they are endangered, like most cool birds, and when I went to the National Zoo, they only showed Kiwis at certain times due to stress levels.





 
And, it is a very free country, compared to many others out there. I did a whole research report on it last year. It's a great place. If I did move there, I could have so much fun being an ornithologist!
 
shadow rabbit10 said:
And, it is a very free country, compared to many others out there. I did a whole research report on it last year. It's a great place. If I did move there, I could have so much fun being an ornithologist!
Click to expand...


:thumbsup That'd be the best place to study ornithology... :love



From Wikipedia:

1000


Comparison of a kiwi (Apteryx sp., Apterygidae, Struthioniformes), ostrich (Struthio camelus, Struthionidae, Struthioniformes), and giant moa (Dinornis giganteus, Dinornithidae, Dinornithiformes), each with its egg.




:eek: This really puts into perspective how large the Kiwi's egg is!




Also from Wikipedia:

1000


Richard Owen, who became director of London’s Museum of Natural History, was the first to recognise that a bone fragment he was shown in 1839 came from a large bird. When later sent collections of bird bones, he managed to reconstruct moa skeletons. In this photograph, published in 1879, he stands next to the largest of all moa, Dinornis maximus (now D. novaezealandiae), while holding the first bone fragment he had examined 40 years earlier.




Okay, forget riding an Ostrich. :lol: It's like a two-legged horse!
 

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