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Home , Kakapo, Passenger pigeon

Contents 1 What Are ? 4 1:1 They Used To Be ! 4 1:2 Hoazins & Turacos – The Missing Link To 5

2 How Do Birds Work? 7 2:1 Bones 7 2:2 10 2:3 How Birds Breathe 16 2:4 How Birds Sing – Syrinx not Larynx 17 2:5 A For All Occasions 18 2:6 Food For Thought 21 2:7 Seeing And Hearing In The Dark 21 2:8 The Nest 23 2:9 Anyone For ? 25

3 Mad Bird Facts 29 3:1 First Ever? 29 3:2 Biggest Ever? 30 3:3 Tallest Bird? 30 3:4 Biggest wingspan? 31 3:5 Smallest Bird? 32 3:6 Biggest Flock? 32 3:7 Most Numerous Today? 33 3:8 Most Endangered Today? 33 3:9 More Mad Bird Facts 35

4 Birds Are Everywhere! 37 4:1 Biomes And 37 4:2 What Makes A Biome Unique? 38

5 The Need For Conservation 39 5:1 Population Pressure 39 5:2 Loss 41 5:3 Climate Change 42 5:4 Pollution 49 5:5 And The Illegal Pet Trade 50

See Part 2 for more information on The Fashion Trade and Birds

3 Mad Bird Facts 3:1 First Ever?

“Anchiornis huxleyi,” is a newly discovered fossil (2009). Anchiornis roamed the earth some 160 million ago, in China’s Liaoning province. It had four wings and was the size of a chicken. I kid you not!

Before this discovery, Archaeopteryx – shown on the right - was the earliest and most primitive bird known.

Archaeopteryx lived in the late Period around 150– 145 million years ago, in an archipelago of islands in a shallow warm tropical sea. Due to the slow movement of continental plates, this area is now much further north, in Germany.

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3:2 Biggest Ever?

The Aepyornis (or Elephant Birds) are an extinct of giant, flightless birds native to Madagascar and have been extinct since at least the 17th century. The Aepyornis was the world's largest bird, believed to have been over 3 metres (10 ft) tall and weighing close to half a ton, 400 kilograms or 880 lb.

Remains of Aepyornis adults and eggs have been found; in some cases the eggs have a circumference of over 1 metre (3 ft) and a length up to 34 centimeters (13 in). The volume is about 160 times greater than a chicken egg. Like the Cassowary, Ostrich, Rhea, Emu and , the Aepyornis were ratites; they could not fly, and their breast bones had no .

It is generally believed that the of the Aepyornis was caused by human activity. A recent archaeological study found remains of eggshells among the ashes of human fires, suggesting that the eggs provided meals for whole families, and there is evidence that the adult birds were also killed.

Another theory suggests that diseases from birds like guinea and chickens, kept by humans, could be transferred to the wild Aepyornis and as we know from current history, rats and dogs may also have eaten the eggs of the ratite population and reduced their ability to breed successfully.

Sir also suggested a theory to explain the demise of the giant elephant birds. Climate change may have dried out the island of Madagascar during the era (to which the impact of humans might have been an additional factor).

3:3 Tallest Bird?

The three men in the photo on the right are John Eyles, Ron Scarlett and Roger Duff, who assembled the leg bones of a Dinornis giganteus from the Pyramid Valley excavations in the 1940s. The pelvis of the Giant is at head-height (with the leg stretched out almost straight).

The Moa were actually ten of flightless birds endemic only to . The two largest species, Dinornis Robustus and Dinornis Novaezelandiae, reached about 3.7 m (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kg 3 (510 lb). All species are thought to have become extinct by 1500 AD, mainly due to hunting by the Maori tribes.

Moa are ratites which means a bird that cannot fly. They do not have a keel bone, the structure that attaches the main powerful muscles from chest to wings and of course they were far too heavy to fly. But not only were they flightless … they were wingless birds, lacking even basic wing structure, which all other ratites have. They were the dominant in New Zealand , shrubland and subalpine for thousands of years. Until the arrival of the Māori their only enemy was the Haast's , which hunted them.

Moa fed on a range of plant species and plant parts, including fibrous twigs and leaves taken from low trees and shrubs. Their beak functioned like a pair of secateurs, and was able to clip the fibrous leaves of New Zealand flax and twigs up to at least 8mm in diameter. Like many other birds, Moa swallowed stones, which were retained in their muscular , providing a grinding action that allowed them to eat coarse plant material.

Loose Moa feathers have been collected from caves and rock shelters in the southern , and so some idea of the Moa can be gained. A preserved leg reveals that this species was feathered right down to the foot. This is likely to have been an to living at high altitude, in cold snowy environments. Moa feathers are up to 23cm (9 in) long and a range of colours have been reported, including red- brown, white, yellow and purplish. Dark feathers with white or creamy tips have also been found, which indicates that some Moa species may have been speckled. For all we know, they shed their plumage according to the time of , much as Ptarmigan grow white feathers in early winter as a response to falling temperatures, so they are better camouflaged against the snow, and moult again into a more mottled brown summer plumage. Can you imagine a twelve foot tall ostrich-like Ptarmigan? Scary!

3:4 Biggest wingspan?

Argentavis Magnificens (literally "magnificent Argentine bird") is the largest flying bird ever discovered. This bird, sometimes called the Giant Teratorn, is an extinct species that used to live in central and northwestern Argentina. The (upper arm bone) of the Giant Teratorn allows a fairly accurate estimate of its length, which was a bit shorter than an entire human arm. The species had stout, strong legs and large feet which enabled it to walk with ease. The bill was large, rather slender, and had a hooked tip with a wide gape.

It is believed that it flew mainly by soaring. With a wingspan of 7.3 meters or 24 feet, it would have used wind currents and probably cliffs that generate uplift in order to take off, as the wings were simply too long to flap effectively until the bird was some meters off the ground. Experts think that the minimal velocity for the wing of Giant Teratorn – the speed it would need to generate to stay in the air - was about 40 km/h (approximately 25mph) minimum. To give you some comparison, this bird’s wings are only two feet shorter each than those of a modern CTSW Microlight plane, which has a wingspan of just under 28 feet!

The Giant Teratorn may have lived much as the modern Andean Condor does today, scanning large areas of land from thousands of feet up. One main difference is that the Andean Condor has relatively poor grip in its talons and so relies on scavenging meat from dead . It could not afford to risk injury by tackling something living. But the Teratorn may have had a better grip, which would make it a terrifying prospect for many prey animals. When hunting, Giant Teratorn would probably have swooped from high above onto their prey, which they usually would have

4 been able to grab, kill, and swallow without landing. Skull structure suggests that it ate most of its prey whole rather than tearing off pieces of flesh.

Giant Teratorn suffered hardly any predation, and mortality was mainly from old age, accidents and disease. It appears likely that the average and maximum age reached by these creatures was between 50-100 years.

3:5 Smallest Bird? The Bee Hummingbird lives on the island of , where it regularly appears on the islands stamps. The male is green with a reddish pink head and throat, elongated lateral plumes, bluish upper-parts, and the rest of the underparts mostly greyish white. The male is smaller than the female. The female is blueish-green above, whitish below with white tips to the outer tail feathers. The tips of their tail feathers have white spots. The female lays only two eggs at a time.

The bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world. Its body is about the size of a large bee. Like all hummingbirds, it is a swift, strong flier. It also can hover over one spot like a helicopter. It beats its wings about 80 times per second — so fast that the wings are a blur to human eyes.

The birds brilliant, iridescent colours make it seem like a tiny jewel. The iridescence isn't always noticeable. It depends on the angle at which a person looks at the bird. The bird's slender, pointed bill is adapted for probing deep into flowers. With a tongue shaped like a long tube, the bird sucks nectar as if it were using a drinking straw. In the process of feeding, the bird picks up pollen on its beak and head and when it flies from flower to flower, it transfers the pollen. In this way, it plays an important role in plant pollination. The bee hummingbird may visit 1,500 flowers a day.

3:6 The Biggest Flock?

The (Ectopistes Migratorius) or Wild Pigeon was once the most common bird in and it lived in enormous flocks. During migration, a single flock would darken the sky, could be 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and 300 miles (500 km) long, taking several hours for the two million birds to pass overhead. During the 19th century, the species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world to extinction.

Some reduction in numbers occurred because of habitat loss when the Europeans started settling further inland but the major decline occurred when pigeon meat was commercialized as a cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century. This resulted in hunting on a massive scale. Conservationists were ineffective in stopping the slaughter. A bill was passed in the Michigan legislature making it illegal to net pigeons within two miles of a nesting area, but the law was poorly enforced. By the mid 1890s, the passenger pigeon had almost completely disappeared. The largest recorded communal nesting Passenger Pigeon colony ever recorded was of 136 million individuals nesting in an area in covering 1,942 sq km (750 sq miles).

These birds would only start courtship and breeding when they were gathered in large numbers and far too late it was realised that smaller groups of passenger pigeons would not breed successfully. The surviving numbers proved too few to re-establish the species. Attempts at

5 breeding among the captive population also failed for the same reasons. Martha, thought to be the world's last passenger pigeon, died on September 1, 1914, in Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio.

3:7 Most numerous today?

The Red-billed Quelea is the world's most abundant bird species (excluding domesticated birds), with an estimated adult breeding population of 1.5 billion. It is a small passerine bird of the weaver family Ploceidae, native to sub-Saharan Africa. Red-billed Quelea live and breed in huge flocks which can take up to 5 hours to fly past.

Red-billed Quelea grow to about 12.5cm long and 15 to 20g in weight.

The breeding season begins with the seasonal rains. The breeding males first weave half-complete oval nests from grass and straw. After the female has examined the construction and mating has occurred, both partners finish weaving the nest. The young chicks are fed for some days with caterpillars and protein-rich insects. Then the parents change to mainly feeding seeds.

The young birds fledge and become independent enough to leave their parents after approximately two weeks in the nest. Many females die before they are a year old, leaving many males without a partner. Their life expectancy is two to three years….less if caught by farmers, who claim that the flocks decimate their grain crops.

The largest recorded nesting in the world is of red-billed quelea at up to 10 billion individuals.

3:8 Most Endangered Today?

In 2000 the organisation Birdlife International produced a Threatened Birds of the World list. It highlighted 1,186 species as Endangered, Threatened, or Vulnerable. These include several like the Guam Rail Gallirallus owstoni and Socorro Dove Zenaida graysoni) that are "extinct in the wild", but there are captive breeding populations of these species and so there is hope for eventual re-introductions into their native habitat.

A few birds on the list are almost surely extinct, like the Javanese Lapwing Vanellus macropterus, Imperial Woodpecker Campephilus imperialis, Ivory-billed Woodpecker C. principalis, Oahu 'Alauahio Paroreomyza maculate and Bachman's Warbler Vermivora bachmanii).

It is thought now that over 10% of the birds in the world are threatened with extinction in the near future, almost all of them due to the destruction of habitat by man. Another 747 species are summarized in an appendix as Near-Threatened and 79 others are considered "data deficient" where there is not enough information on them to permit evaluation. Together this means that almost 1 out of every 5 species of bird on the planet is at serious threat of extinction.

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The flightless New Zealand is the world's rarest and strangest . It is the only flightless and nocturnal parrot and it is the heaviest in the world, weighing up to 3.5 kilograms (8 lbs). It is possibly the longest- living bird, perhaps surviving for a hundred years and has a low frequency subsonic mating “boom” that can travel over several kilometres!

Many people are trying to save the Kakapo. As the Kakapo Recovery Programme website run by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation says… “There are 6 billion people on earth and only 124 Kakapo”.

“It's a parrot that looks like an , or a giant budgie. It cannot fly, although it has large wings. It walks and jumps and is an excellent climber. It is nocturnal and can be found feeding on the ground or 20m up a rimu tree. It “skraarks” loudly like other but you might mistake other calls for a braying donkey, a grunting or squealing pig, a booming bittern; and it also produces a nasal metallic noise called “chinging”. A feature most people notice, is that the males in particular, have a distinctive musty odour.“

"The kakapo is a bird out of time. If you look one in its large, round, greeny-brown face, it has a look of serenely innocent incomprehension that makes you want to hug it and tell it that everything will be all right, though you know that it probably will not be." - , author, 1990.

For more information on Kakapo conservation, go to www.kakaporecovery.org.nz

New Zealand is an island which had only two native mammal species – both bats - for millions of years. Birds and reptiles were the top of the food chain. As a consequence, the Kakapo did not develop any defence mechanisms to combat or escape mammalian predators. This made the parrot very vulnerable when new animals were introduced by humans.

The arrival of Polynesian peoples thousands of years ago, followed by Europeans in the 1800's, and the pets, pests and livestock they brought with them, resulted in a massive decline of Kakapo populations from hundreds of thousands to a mere handful of birds. Once common throughout the three main islands of New Zealand, there are now approximately 124 individual Kakapo left. These remaining birds have been relocated to six predator-free islands, where the birds are relatively safe and have been breeding!

“If naturalists go to heaven [about which there is considerable ecclesiastical doubt], I hope that I will be furnished with a troop of kakapo to amuse me in the evening instead of television" - , British naturalist, 1989.

7 The Amsterdam Albatross or Amsterdam Island Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, is a huge albatross which breeds only on Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean.It is listed as by the IUCN. It was only described in 1983, and was thought by some researchers to be a sub-species of the Wandering Albatross, exulans. BirdLife International believes it to be a separate species, Clements does not, and the SACC has a proposal on the table to split the species.

This massive bird weighs 4.8–8 kg (11–18 lb) and is 107–122 cm (42–48 in) long with a wingspan of 280–366 cm (11 foot and 11 inches). The adult bird is chocolate brown on its upper parts and white on its face mask and lower parts, with a broad brown band across its chest. Its pink bill is dark tipped with dark cutting edges and its underwings are white except for dark tips and leading edges.

With a range of 4.5 million square kilometers, (1,700,000 square miles) and a breeding range of only 7 km2 (2.7 sq miles) this bird needs a massive range to supply it with food.

It only breeds every other year, in a very small area which means that the population is vulnerable to predation and disturbance.

The island has undergone significant change, after the introduction of ferel cats, cattle and longline fishing.

With only one breeding location, the birds are especially susceptible to diseases like Avian Cholera.

When discovered, the population was down to just 5 breeding pairs. With conservation efforts this number has increased to between 18 and 25 breeding pairs. The world population is currently estimated at 80 mature individuals with a total of some 130 birds. Today each bird is banded and regular censuses are undertaken. The breeding areas are fenced to keep cattle out and reduce disturbance.

3:9 More Mad Bird Facts

The heaviest and tallest bird is an Ostrich at up to 156 kg (345 lb) and 2.7 m (9 ft) tall.. The Ostrich also has the largest eyeball of all birds, with a diameter of 5 cm (2 in).

The heaviest flying bird is a Great Bustard at 21 kg (46.3 lb).

The greatest wingspan of any land based bird is owned by the Andean Condor and Marabou Stork both of which are 3.2 m (10.5 feet).

The smallest is the Inaccessible Island Rail at 12.5 cm (5 in) and 34.7 g (1.2 oz).

The bird with the longest legs is the ostrich relative to body length, but the Black-winged Stilt has legs that are 23 cm (9 in), or 60% of its height. Swifts legs are so short they have to shuffle when they land.

8 The bird with the longest toes relative to body length is the Northern Jacana at 10 cm (4 in).

The bird with the longest bill relative to body length is the Sword-tailed Hummingbird at 10.5 cm (4.13 in).

The bird with the longest bill is the Australian Pelican at 47 cm (18.5 in) .

The fastest moving bird is the Peregrine Falcon, which can stoop at 188 km/h (117 mph)

The fastest bird in level-flight is the Red-breasted Merganser at 161 km/h (100 mph) .

The bird with the longest feathers is the Onagadori, a domesticated Red Jungle Fowl, at 10.59 m (34.75 ft).

The owner of the longest tail feathers is the Crested Argus Pheasant at 173 cm (5.7 ft).

The bird with the longest tail feathers relative to body length is the Fork-tailed Flycatcher at 27 cm (10.75 in).

The bird with the greatest number of feathers is the Whistling Swan at 25,216.

The most sparsely-feathered bird, is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird at 940.

The birds with the most secondary flight feathers are the Wandering and the Royal Albatrosses with 40 secondaries and 11 primaries on each wing.

The fastest-moving bird is a Racing Pigeon which flies at up to 177 km/h (110 mph)

The slowest-flying bird is the American woodcock at 8 km/h (5 mph)

The bird with the fastest wing beat is the hummingbird. The Amethyst Woodstar and Horned Sungem, flaps at 90/sec

The bird with the slowest wing beat is the Vulture. Many vultures only flap their wings once a second.

The highest flying bird is recorded as Ruppell's Griffon Vulture, spotted at 11,274 metres (7 miles) up.

The Sooty Tern flies continuously without landing for between 3 and 10 years.

The longest two-way migration is undertaken by the Arctic Tern at 40,200 km (25,000 miles).

Penguins have the most aquatic life, spending about 75% of their time in the sea.

The greatest G-force (acceleration due to gravity) is produced by the beak of the red- headed woodpecker hitting bark at 20.9 km/h (13 mph)

9 The most talkative and intelligent bird is the African gray parrot with a vocabulary of 800 words, but crows and striated herons come a close second.

The greatest bird mimic is the marsh warbler, which incorporates up to 84 different other bird songs and background noises.

The coldest temperature a bird is exposed to is an average temperature of -45.6 degrees C (-50 degrees F). Male Emperor penguins endure the Antarctic winter on pack ice as they fast for 134 days whilst they incubate their eggs. This too is the record for the longest fasting period of any bird.

However, the coldest temperature ever endured by a bird was -62.5 degrees C (-80.5 degrees F) by a Snowy Owl.

Although the Hammerkop holds the world record for the largest roofed nest, at 2 m (6.5 ft) wide and 2 m (6.5 ft) deep, the record for the largest tree nest is held by a Bald Eagle in Florida. It measured 6.1 m (20 ft) deep, 2.9 m (9.5 ft) wide, and weighed in at 2,722 kg (almost 3 tons)

The country with the most endangered birds is Indonesia with 126. Brazil comes second with 121.

The country with the highest percentage of endangered bird species is New Zealand with 30%.

The highest price ever paid for a bird book was $3.96 million U.S. dollars for a set of John James 's in 1989

The highest price paid for a stuffed bird was £9,000 for an extinct Great Auk by the Natural History Museum of Iceland in 1971.

These Bird Records were sourced from “The Bird Almanac” by David M. Bird, PhD.

4 Birds Are Everywhere!

There are about 9,000 species of birds on the planet today. They inhabit every major biome and habitat classified by humans.

4:1 Biomes and Habitats Biomes are climatically and geographically defined areas that have similar plants, animals and soil organisms. They are often referred to as ecosystems.

A habitat is an ecological or environmental area inhabited by a particular or plant species, within a biome. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds, influences and is utilized by a particular species.

At the very broadest classification of biomes are three divisions:

10 Terrestrial (land) biomes Freshwater biomes Marine biomes

Biomes are often known in English by local names. For example, a temperate grassland or shrubland biome is known commonly as “steppe” in central Asia, as a “prairie” in North America and as “pampas” in South America. Grasslands are known as “savanna” in Australia, whereas in Southern Africa it is known as “veldt”.

Sometimes an entire biome may be targeted for protection, especially under an individual nation's Biodiversity Action Plan.

4:2 What Makes A Biome Unique? Climate is a major factor defining the size and extent of biomes. Latitude makes a big difference. How far north or south of the equator is the region? How humid, semi-humid, semi-arid or arid is the region? The seasonal variation in rainfall affects the plants and animal life.

How high up the region is above sea level is called the elevation. Increasing elevation causes a distribution of habitat types similar to that of increasing latitude. The higher you go, the more “northerly” the environment becomes. Biodiversity or the number of species in a particular space, generally increases away from the poles towards the equator.

ice sheet & polar desert xeric shrubland tundra dry steppe Taiga semiarid desert temperate broadleaf forest grass savanna temperate steppe tree savanna subtropical rainforest subtropical dry forest Mediterranean vegetation tropical rainforest monsoon forest alpine tundra arid desert montane forest

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