Can a bird without wings be called a bird?
Birds evolved from dinosaurs, in the history of birds have evolved more than 10,000 kinds of birds called neoornithic birds, and at present, only 9020 kinds of birds are known in the world, and there are more than 1400 species in China. Compared to other terrestrial vertebrates, birds are a species with many unique physiological characteristics. They have great differences in size, shape, color and living habits, and birds are beautiful in appearance and pleasant in sound, which are deeply loved by humans. In general, oviparous vertebrates with feathers on the surface of their bodies can be called birds, and their main feature is that their bodies are streamlined, and most birds live a flying life. Generally, the forelimbs become wings, while some species have degenerated wings and can only stay on land for a lifetime; and the author brings today is one of the birds that choose to degenerate wings - the New Zealand national bird "Kiwi".
kiwi
The Kiwi, also known as the sandpiper, is the most primitive bird in the sandpiper. There are only three species of kiwi in the world, distributed in Oceania and New Zealand, and are known as brown kiwis, large-spotted kiwis and small-spotted kiwis. Shaped like a pear, it has fluffy dense feathers all over its body, and has no tail feathers and cannot fly. But that leg was thick and strong, ran well, reached speeds of up to 10 miles per hour, and when lost his temper, could drive another bird of the same kind 5 feet away. The tip of the kiwi's beak is thin and long, and it can be balanced as a third leg when resting, and is shaped like a tripod. The nostrils are at the very tip of the beak and have a strange olfactory function to find bugs beneath the soil layer 7 inches above the ground. The kiwi survives by eating insects, earthworms, berries, leaves, etc., hiding in burrows and root holes during the day and foraging for food at night. The eyes are small and the vision is weak.
The kiwi is a Tier 1 protected animal in the appendix to the Washington Convention, and the North Island brown kiwi is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
New Zealanders' crazy love of kiwi birds;
【National Bird】 Kiwi is a unique animal in New Zealand, the appearance is like a kiwi fruit, plus there is no winged eyes small to look very cute, so New Zealanders are also crazy to love it, to New Zealand almost everywhere can see the figure of the kiwi, there is a statue of the kiwi.
Some people named the bank after the kiwi bird, and even printed the kiwi on the coin; (some coins in New Zealand have the head of Queen Elizabeth on one side and the kiwi on the other;
Some have even proposed to design a new Zealand flag with a kiwi bird motif, calling themselves kiwi;
In nature, more than 90% of kiwi birds can hardly survive adulthood, because their natural enemies are not only cats, ferrets, etc. in nature, but also humans. Therefore, New Zealanders who love kiwi birds deliberately set up special protected areas in the activity area of kiwi birds and also prohibit the activities of pet cats kept by people in this area. (There were once two very rare white kiwi birds born at the Bruce National Wildlife Conservation Centre, and the people of New Zealand were cheered up.) But the white kiwi bird, which is not yet full moon, was killed by the predator ferret in the reserve. ）
[The Legend of the Kiwi] New Zealand's native legend is that the sacred fire burned the forest, and the kiwi was burned in the sacred fire with its wings and charred feathers, the kiwi was able to survive the sacred fire, and it was also worshipped by people at that time that it was the king of the forest. He named it Kiwi after his call (jiwi). When the native Maori held sacrifices, they would make capes out of kiwi feathers to pray for protection from disasters. This tradition has also been preserved to this day, except that new Zealand now stipulates that capes can only be made from the feathers of naturally dead kiwi birds, and only the chief is alone.
Monogamous kiwi birds can lay huge bird eggs
In terms of reproduction and mating, kiwi birds practice the same monogamous system as humans, with one male and one female kiwi bird taking care of and nurturing the next generation, and a great hobby of successful kiwi birds is to build a shelter. According to statistics, some kiwi birds can build hundreds of nests as their home in a lifetime.
A mature kiwi bird is about the size of a mature chicken. Eggs of this size are almost one-third the size of their body weight, ostrich eggs are the largest eggs in the world, and the eggs of the kiwi are the second largest eggs in the world, in fact, they are only a little bit close to becoming the world's largest eggs; being able to breed such a large egg is enough to reflect the maternal love of female kiwis.
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