World’s Largest Birds

There are approximately 10,000 species of birds present on the earth and they are rages from different sizes and shapes from the small bee hummingbird to the largest ostrich. The common ostrich ( Struthio camelus), is the largest bird in the world. It belongs to the infra-class Palaeognathae. Ostrich is the tallest and heaviest, is around over 2 meters in height (and occasionally reaches 2.8 meters), and weighs up to 160 kg. At this size, the ostrich is definitely a flightless bird, it is known as the fastest animal running on two legs because its run-up speed is much higher than other animals and the speed of birds is 69 km per hour.
A diverse group of flightless birds called ratites involved the emu, rheas, and kiwi. Both the common ostrich and the Somali ostrich are two living species of ostrich. They are large flightless birds of Africa that lay the largest eggs compared to any living land Species. They are the fastest birds on earth as they have the ability to run at speeds of up to 70 km/h.

What is a Bird?

A group of theropod dinosaurs are also feathered birds. The only extant dinosaurs descended from avian dinosaurs. The ancestors of prehistoric flying birds were first found in China about 160 million years ago. In modern times, birds are classified as one of the six basic animal groups, namely amphibians, fish, invertebrates, mammals, and reptiles, which are categorized as the biological class Aves. The characteristics of the Aves group are feathers, hard shells, egg-laying, teeth, beakless jaws, a given metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a powerful but weak skeleton. The scientific name of the bird is Aves. If you look at the history of birds, there are about ten thousand life forms of birds. Out of which there are more sparrows or passers-by than the rest. Birds are found everywhere on earth.

List of 15 Largest Animal

1. Somali Ostrich

The Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes) was until 2014 considered a subspecies of the common ostrich, also known as the blue-necked ostrich. But in 2014 it was recognized as a separate species. The Somali ostrich is generally ecologically different in comparison to common ostrich species, but it is one ability to impress with its running speed, they are able to cover a distance of 5 meters in a single stride.

2. Emu

Emu’s scientific name is Dromis Novahollandia. It’s like a big beautiful little ostrich, and ostriches aren’t made to fly either, they’re flightless birds. Emu is said to be the second-largest bird in the world. The female species are larger in comparison to the male species and if taller, approximately 1.9 meters. Emu is fast birds too, and have the ability to reach 48 kilometres per hour, using their three-toed feet and small wings to keep them stable when running.

3. Southern Cassowary

Southern cassowary (Casurius curious) birds have dark glossy plumage and are large. The southern cassowary bird is found in north-eastern Australia, Indonesia, and New Guinea places. It is a huge, flightless, blackbird. One of three cassowary species, they are also known as the double-wattled cassowary, Australian cassowary, and two-wattled cassowary. It is also known as the fourth-largest bird in the world, The southern cassowary is claimed to be the most dangerous bird in the world. Each southern cassowary has large feet, sharp 13-centimetre claws that they use to kick out in defence of any other large bird, and has been known to kill humans.

4. Dalmatian Pelican

Dalmatian pelican birds are the heaviest and one of the largest flying birds on earth, it weighs about 15 kg and is 1.75 m in height. It is commonly found in rivers, lakes and estuaries in the region of Southeastern Europe, Russia, India and China. The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus Crispus) belongs to Eurasia. They are social birds, living mainly in cluster foam.

5. Northern Cassowary

The northern cassowary (Casaurus unpendiculatus) is native to northern New Guinea. The female species are larger in comparison to the male species and if taller, approximately 1.7 meters. It weighs around 70 kilograms. Despite their stocky build, the northern cassowary is also known by other names as the one-wattled cassowary or golden-necked cassowary.It runs at a speed of 50 kilometres per hour. 

6. Mute Swan & Trumpeter Swan

The mute swan (Cygnus olor) and the trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) are of similar structure, height, and weight. Both are known as the two heaviest flying birds in the world. These swan structures are beautiful and elegant but there is a dark side to this when they defend their families or territories – standing upright and hissing or attacking intruders with their beaks and wings.

7. Greater Rhea

The Greater Rheas (Rhea americana) is one of the largest birds in the Americas. Greater Rias Endemic to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Greater rhea birds are flightless and fast. It has the ability to run at speeds of up to 35 kilometres per hour using its long, well-shaped legs. With their high speed, they gather in clusters of up to 100 birds during the non-breeding season to protect themselves from predators.

8. Marabou Stork

Marabou storks (Leptoptilos crumenifer) are large endangered birds present in Africa south of the Sahara. Marabous are scavengers who eat anything from termites, flamingos, and small birds and mammals to human faeces and dead elephants on the earth. They also eat on carcasses with other scavengers like vultures and hyenas. They are abnormal-appearance birds, bald-headed with wisps of hair, perhaps able of their addition to the ugly five. The spread of their wings extends up to 3.2 meters and the height is about 1.5 meters. Marabou storks have hollow bones in their feet and legs, which is an adaptation to help them fly.

9. Shoebill

The solitary shoebill stork (Balaeniceps rex) is a very big bird. Its height is up to around 1.5 meters high. Males species are commonly taller compared to females and have much longer bills. The entire shoebill is bluish-grey, with black-tipped and slaty feathers edged with green.. Shoebills are mainly carnivorous birds. They are large in size and have huge beaks that give them permission to hunt anything from water snakes to catfish and sometimes even monitor lizards.

10. Domestic Turkey

Domestic turkeys and wild turkeys are the same species and are endemic to North America. However, unlike wild turkeys, domestic turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo f. domesticus) do not have the ability to fly because they have been selectively bred to be so heavy. Due to the heavy breast muscles, they can not fly and their breast meat is white.

11. Emperor Penguin

Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) are the tallest and heaviest of the entire penguin species. Its are present only in the Antarctica area. Both the male and female emperor penguins are not flighted and homozygous in size and colouring to females, but display different functions during the breeding season. For two months during the dark Antarctic winter, 100 male Emperor penguins gather together to protect their eggs from the freezing cold while the female species go out to sea to hunt. Males lose about half their body weight during this time.

12. Lesser Rhea

The lesser rhea – (Rhea pennata) is height around 1 meter tall and weighs in at around 20 kilograms. It’s mainly present in South America. Lesser rheas occur in solitary or in small groups, and males take care of their little birds.

13. King Penguin

King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) are found in selected islands in the outer reaches of Antarctica, and also on the tip of the South American continent. King Penguins are the second species of penguin on this list, this species has a maximum height of 1 meter and weighs around 18 kg. They carry the same weight as the largest flying birds.

14. Dwarf Cassowary

The dwarf cassowary is the smallest species in the cassowary genus, the dwarf cassowary (Casaurus bennettii) also known as Bennett’s cassowary, small cassowary, mountain cassowary, and mooruk among other names. Dwarf cassowary birds exist only in New Guinea, New Britain and Yapen Island in mountain forests up to an altitude of 3,300 m. Casuarius bennettii is the smallest of the three species of cassowary, living in forests up to 3 km high on hills and mountains. Growing up to about a meter tall, this bird eats fungi, fruits and even insects or small animals.

15. Cinereous Vulture

The cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) is the heaviest and largest bird of prey in the entire world. Many scientists suggest that this bird is the largest vulture and the greatest bird of prey. Its height is approximately 1 meter long and its weight is around 12.5 kg. The cinereous vulture is found in southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, Mongolia, and southern China in the region.

Conclusion

Birds are a beautiful part of the world. Thus, we all should take proper measures to help the birds to survive and save them from extinction. Birds are necessary for our ecosystem and its maintenance, thus we all should protect them.
 

My Personal Notes

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