Wild Facts

Photo from Wikicommons

Today our Flightless Bird adventure takes us all the way south to New Zealand to see if we can catch a glimpse of the Weka. Isn’t that just a fun name to say? Go ahead, say it again….Weka!  This particular flightless bird is part of the rail family and can only be found in New Zealand.  Luckily there are 4 subspecies so it improves our chances of finding one.

The Weka is a large brown bird about the size of a chicken.  Although, it doesn’t look like they have wings they have just been greatly reduced.  The Weka also has a 5 cm long, tapered beak which they like to use as a weapon.  I am starting to think that a lot of these flightless birds are violent.  Why does the Weka need a weapon?  Although they do have to worry about ferrets, cats and dogs the Weka most likely uses this weapon to capture its own food.  They prefer to feed on a variety of things including worms, beetles, ants, slugs, frogs, spiders, mice, rats and even small birds.  They will also mix it up with berries, leaves and grass.

This diverse diet makes sense when you discover that they can be found in a number of different habitats.  These sturdy birds can be found in forests, grasslands, rocky shores, sand dunes and even semi-urban environments.  Basically, you can’t go anywhere without being among the habitat of a Weka.  Although they occupy all of these locations and seem to be fairly adaptable they are classed as Vulnerable.

Photo from Wikicommons

The Weka causes a lot of issues for the Government of New Zealand.  The problem with these birds is the fact that some sub-species are on the Threatened list, however, these same birds are consuming and destroying other populations of threatened animals.  This type of behaviour is usually a result of the Weka being introduced to an island it was not normally found on.  I guess in the end we created our own problems but now we need to figure them out.

Weka Fast Fact – Weka’s are important in the forest as they are able to disperse the seeds of many plants that would normally be too large for other birds to handle.  I guess you get the good and the bad with this Flightless Bird.

Thanks for checking out the Weka and I can’t wait to provide you with all kinds of new and exciting Flightless Bird Facts tomorrow.  Enjoy the rest of your day.

Photo by: Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust

Since I have started this Wild Facts project, I have been fighting the urge to write about one of my favourite birds, the Dodo Bird. Of course I am having this conflict since this amazingly peculiar bird no longer exists on our planet. Therefore, I figured I would go to my second favourite bird, the Kiwi, and I thought I had better hurry up before this one is extinct too.  For the record, I may lose this battle with myself and write a Fact on the Dodo Bird at some point in time.  But not today! Today we celebrate the life of the interesting New Zealand bird, the Kiwi.

This flightless bird native to the jungles of New Zealand just happens to be their National Bird. Why wouldn’t this fuzzy little bird be so highly recognized, right? I mean, they look so cute, who wouldn’t want them as your National Bird. There are several species of Kiwi with sizes ranging between 25 cm – 45 cm (9.8″ – 17″) tall. Unfortunately, all species of Kiwi are listed as endangered as a result of deforestation and the introduction of invasive predators.

You may have noticed the large beak on the Kiwi.  Don’t say anything to them since they are a little sensitive about it but this disproportionate beak does serve a purpose. Just so you know their beak is roughly one-third the size of their body.  The Kiwi uses this long beak to search the forest floor for food such as berries, worms, insects and spiders.  Just think, they would hardly have to put their head down to reach the forest floor.

Photo by: Malene Thyssen

This particular bird has a very tough time living in one specific spot.  Each day the Kiwi will dig a burrow that it will rest in that night.  Once it wakes up it moves onto another spot to create a new burrow.  It seems like a lot of work to me but at least they get to see the countryside. The only time they manage to settle down is during nesting season.  The female Kiwi will lay a clutch of approximately 5 eggs which will take about 3 months to hatch.  I bet it is just killing those birds to sit still for 3 months. During this incubation period it is the male Kiwi that will do most of the work to ensure his baby eggs are kept warm. It is always nice when the father doesn’t abandon his children but I guess sitting on some eggs for 3 months is easier than paying child support for the rest of his life, right?

Kiwi Fast Fact – Believe it or not the Kiwi is believed to be related to a couple of other flightless birds, albeit much larger, the ostrich and the emu.  This makes the Kiwi the smallest member of that particular family and no doubt gets picked on during family gatherings.

That just about does it for me today.  Have a great day folks!  Before we sign off for the day make sure to check out the short clip (under a minute) of the Kiwi utilizing his beak to find some food.

We keep talking about species of Australia and I feel bad for the beautiful country just south east of Australia. I am of course talking about New Zealand!  It looks like a great place to find intriguing animals yet it seems like we hardly talk about it.  Today is going to change all of that as we are going to discuss the Kakapo which in the wild is only found in New Zealand.

Oh, so what is a Kakapo!  Well, obviously it is a bird!  Didn’t you look at the picture above? Okay, I will stop being a smart alec. The kakapo is a flightless, nocturnal parrot. In fact it is the largest species of Parrot in the world, weighing between 2-4 kg (4.5-9 lbs).  It is the only parrot species that I know of which is flightless and nocturnal.  This is a very interesting bird.

Unfortunately, the kakapo is critically endangered with only 125 living birds left in the wild.  The kakapo use to flourish in New Zealand since they didn’t have to worry about mammalian predators back in the day. Without having any predators, the kakapo had no need to evolve any self-defense mechanisms.  The absence of these mammalian predators may also be the reason why this particular bird evolved to be flightless.  There was just no need for them to worry about being eaten.  Once mammals starting being introduced to the islands of New Zealand, these defenseless birds were no match for the predators.  I guess you could say it was like taking candy from a baby.  Today, efforts have been made to transfer some of these endangered but maginificent bird species to islands lacking mammalian predators.  The way I see it is that those 120 birds had better find a shortcut to evolution if they want to remain living in this world.

Well folks, today was just a quick Fact about the Kakapo.  I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you again tomorrow.