Flightless birds

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Flightless birds
Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly.There are over 60 extant species including the well known ratites (ostrich, emu, cassowary, rheaand kiwi) and 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). Ostriches are farmed for their decorative feathers, meat and their skins, which are used to make leather.
Many domesticated birds, such as the domestic chicken and domestic duck, have lost the ability to fly for extended periods, although their ancestral species, the red junglefowl and mallard, respectively, are capable of extended flight. A few particularly bred birds, such as the Broad Breasted White turkey, have become totally flightless as a result of selective breeding; the birds were bred to grow massive breast meat that weighs too much for the bird's wings to support in flight.
Flightlessness has evolved in many different birds independently. There were also other families of flightless birds, such as the now extinct Phorusrhacidae, that evolved to be powerful terrestrial predators. Taking this to a greater extreme, the terror birds (and their relatives the bathornithids), eogruids, geranoidids, gastornithiforms, and dromornithids (all extinct) all evolved similar body shapes – long legs, long necks and big heads – but none of them were closely related. Furthermore, they also share traits of being giant, flightless birds with vestigial wings, long legs, and long necks with some of the ratites, although they are not related.
Origin of flightless birds


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Divergences and losses of flight within ratite lineage occurred right after the K-Pg extinction event wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and large vertebrates 66 million years ago. The immediate evacuation of niches following the mass extinction provided opportunities for Palaeognathes to distribute and occupy novel environments. New ecological influences selectively pressured different taxon to converge on flightless modes of existence by altering them morphologically and behaviorally. The successful acquisition and protection of a claimed territory selected for large size and cursoriality in Tertiary ancestors of ratites. Temperate rainforests dried out throughout the Miocene and transformed into semiarid deserts causing habitats to be widely spread across the growingly disparate landmasses. Cursoriality was an economic means of traveling long distances to acquire food that was usually low lying vegetation, more easily accessed by walking. Traces of these events are reflected in ratite distribution throughout semiarid grasslands and deserts today.
Gigantism is not a requirement for flightlessness. The kiwi does not exhibit gigantism, along with tinamous, even though they coexisted with the moa and rhea that both exhibit gigantism. This could be the result of different ancestral flighted birds arrival or because of competitive exclusion.The first flightless bird to arrive in each environment utilized the large flightless herbivore or omnivore niche, forcing the later arrivals to remain smaller. In environments where flightless birds are not present, it is possible that after the K/T Boundary there were no niches for them to fill. They were pushed out by other herbivorous mammals.
New Zealand had more species of flightless birds (including the kiwi, several species of penguins, the takahe, the weka, the moa, and several other extinct species) than any other such location. One reason is that until the arrival of humans roughly a thousand years ago, there were no large land predators in New Zealand; the main predators of flightless birds were larger birds

List of flightless birdsEdit


Many flightless birds are extinct; this list shows species that are either still extant, or became extinct in the Holocene (no more than 11,000 years ago). Extinct species are indicated with a dagger (†). A number of species that are suspected, but not confirmed to be flightless, are also included here.

Ratites

brownKiwi  

Anseriformes (waterfowl)Edit


Galliformes (game birds)Edit

Podicipediformes (grebes)Edit

Pelecaniformes (pelicans, cormorants and allies)Edit


Sphenisciformes (penguins)Edit

Coraciiformes (kingfishers, hornbills and allies)Edit

CiconiiformesEdit


Gruiformes (cranes, rails, and coots)Edit


Mesitorniformes (mesites)Edit

  • Brown mesite Mesitornis unicolor (possibly flightless, has not been seen flying)

Charadriiformes (gulls, terns, auks)


Great auk, Pinguinus impennis †

Falconiformes (birds of prey)Edit

Psittaciformes (parrots)Edit

  • Kakapo, Strigops habroptilus

Columbiformes (pigeons, doves)Edit


Caprimulgiformes (nightjars)Edit

Strigiformes (owls)Edit

Passeriformes (perching birds)Edit

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