From soaring through the skies to picking at their enemies to teaching children the alphabet birds are fascinating creatures. And much like Pokémon, there are lots of different types some are big, some are small, some can fly, some can and some are truly fascinating and unlike anything you've ever seen these are the most unique birds in the world.
#5. Shoebill Stork.
Sometimes known as the whale head and never known as captain Floop aduke. The shoe build stork is a strange bird known and named for the Schalch shape of its humungous bill the Shoebill stork has one of the most distinctive beaks in the bird kingdom.
Looking a bit like a wooden clog but the huge size of its beak is not merely aesthetic, it serves an incredible purpose the size of this thing enables the Shoebill stork to catch and eat surprisingly large prey.
The bill is also incredibly hard which when combined with the storks extraordinary jaw muscles make this innocent-looking bird capable of eating animals you don't really think it should be able to kind of like when you meet a skinny person who eats loads and you're like.
What the Shoebill stork easily captures and dismembers its prey luckily for you that doesn't include humans. It feasts primarily on fish with occasional and Fabian’s reptiles and even smaller birds. Sometimes it will even dabble in cannibalism killing and eating other birds they're found in East Africa primarily in large tropical swamps Sudan South to Zambia.
While it may not be all that common to see one in the wild once you do you'll get a pretty decent view and why, because they tend to stand silent and motionless for long periods of time they just stand there stationary inviting you to lean back and take in their beauty.
A bit like the bird equivalent of those human statues they just stand there hoping that that's enough to impress you and given they have a height of 43 to 55 inches. And a wingspan of up to eight feet six inches you can be sure that if one of these things is in the area you 100% will not miss it. Can you imagine if you saw one of these giant birds just standing around gapping at you now that's an actual big bird.
#4. Flightless Cormorant.
The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago volcanic islands distributed on either side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean surrounding the center of the Western Hemisphere 906 kilometers 563 miles west of continental Ecuador.
The islands are known for their large number of endemic species and we're studied by Charles Darwin during the second voyage of HMS Beagle. They also served as the inspiration for Kurt Vonnegut's awesome book Galapagos.
Seriously read it read all his stuff but I'm rambling on about the Galapagos Islands because they are also home to one of the most unique birds in the entire animal kingdom. The flightless cormorant the Galapagos Islands are actually the only place on the entire planet you will find the flightless cormorants. as you can probably imagine this makes the bird extraordinarily rare there are only about 1000 left in the world.
The flightless cormorant is an odd bird hence appearing has black and brown feathers brilliant turquoise eyes and most oddly of all a low growling voice. their stubby wings are about one-third the size they need to fly hence why they are the flightless cormorant and not the incredibly great at flying cormorant.
But while they might be as good at flying as you or me it's in the water where they truly excel in the water they could give any sea lion a run for its money. They use their cute webbed feet and almost dangerously powerful legs to dive right down to the very bottom of the ocean in a desperate search of fish, eels, octopus and other small prey.
They can be vicious when they want to be exploring the ocean's depths in the hunt for dinner but there's something even more curious about the flightless cormorant these cormorants evolved in an island habitat that was free of predators having no enemies taking its food primarily through diving along the food rich shorelines and not needing to travel to breeding grounds.
This is the reason why they evolved to be incapable of flight with no predators to fly away from they had no need. However since their discovery by man the islands have not remained free of predators cats, dogs, and pigs have been introduced to the islands over the years.
#3. Kakapo.
The Kakapo is a critically endangered flightless parrot native to New Zealand, they are chunky fellows real hefty boys wobbly clumps Kakapo's are the heaviest of any pair of species.
They weigh upwards of 9 pounds of maturity despite this these birds are incredibly adept climbers. They hold their wings out to help them balance just like we might hold our arms out when walking a tightrope as they jump from branch to branch. What adorable and fluffy little gymnasts and with the chubbiness to boot they're almost like the bird kingdoms very own Roscoe Arbuckle.
The kakapo lives a mostly nocturnal life sniffing out food with its well adapted olfactory senses but suffering from poor eyesight maybe that's why they get so squishy because they can't see how much they've eaten.
The species was driven to the brink primarily by rats and dogs brought in by human settlers successful conservation programs have brought the number of individuals from 51 in 1995 to 149 today.
I would call that a success and hopefully it's a number that keeps climbing it's the only parent in the world that mates by leek eight males line up to put on a mating display in mass and the females pick their favorites kind of like a chubby parrot version of the Bachelorette. I think I don't know for sure I've never watched it unfortunately these lovebirds only breed an average of three times a decade.
When the fruit of the Remo tree is abundant making it one of the most endangered birds but as we've said the numbers are doing better as of late even if like pandas they just won't made enough.
#2. Long-Wattled Umbrellabird.
You've had to wait all the way to number two for this one it's the long-wattled umbrellabird and yes seriously that's its name. Mainly found in the humid forests of both Ecuador and Colombia.
The long-wattled umbrellabird has as surprising as this may sound features even more bizarre than its name. I didn't think that would be possible and yet here we are just look the overwhelmingly magnificent crest on the male's it looks like something the hair musicians of the 70s would adorn themselves with in Elvis style quiff this is a bird who seriously wants to be noticed with its hair like feathers stretching out across their bill.
And that's only the beginning of the long-wattled umbrellabirds visual decadence the wattle is even more peculiar than their crest or bill it is black and long hanging down about 16 inches from the middle of their chest. It is what fashion designers might call a bold look, they can even inflate said wattle during courtship rituals to draw attention perhaps even more incredibly they can retract it against their chest during an epic fight.
#1. Sri Lanka Frogmouth.
And we end with this strange fella a fella so strange that it has a mouth less like a birds and more like a frog. That's why rather fittingly it's called the Sri Lanka Frogmouth it's also been known to be called the Sri Lankan frog mouth and the Sealy own frog mouth it's never been called the grumble from pool spirit.
This strange frog-faced feathery friend is a small little bird found in the western Ghats of South India and Sri Lanka related to the nightjars it is nocturnal and found in forest habitats. the plumage correlation resembles that of dried leaves and the bird roost quietly in branches making it difficult to see.
Each has a favorite roost that it uses regularly unless disturbed it has a distinctive call that is usually heard at dawn and dusk. They live in the dense undergrowth of tropical forests where their grey brown feathers make them very difficult to see. what makes them particularly weird is their oversized head look at how stupidly big it is compared to the rest of their body.
They kind of look like one of those Funko pop figures but the literal big head isn't just aesthetic it gives these nocturnal birds an incredibly wide field of binocular vision. The short stiff bristles around their eyes are yet another attractive and distinguishing feature. This frog mouth is rarely seen during the day except at roost sites or when flushed it regularly uses the same ruse spot for months.
when alarmed at its perch it slowly moves its head pointing its bill upward and it can easily be mistaken for a jagged broken branch. It relies on this caryopsis and will often sit still a long time before making an escape it may open its mouth wide in a threat display like its congeners it feeds on inside.
Catching them in flight or gleaning them from the ground or tree branches it is sometimes mob that it's day post by small songbirds. It is vocal at dusk the call of the female being allowed screechy scream which drops in volume and ends in a series of hiccups another call is a series of rapid squar, squar, squar, which is produced by both male and female. The breeding season in southern India is January to April and its Sri Lanka February to March the nest is a small pad made of moss and covered on the outside with lichens and bark.
The bird incubates a
single white egg covering the nest and holding the tail flush with the tree
taking on the outline of a lichen covered snag. The male often broods during
the day while both parents shared the duty during the night. After the chick Flitch’s
the male destroys the nest the parents often use the same branch for multiple nesting’s
the juvenile may stay with the parents for a couple of months huddling between
them at the roost.
0 Comments