• Question: what is the most interesting type of bird you have found?

    Asked by kkkjj1508 to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 12 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Charlotte Brassey

      Charlotte Brassey answered on 12 Jun 2012:

      My favourite extinct bird is the giant moa of New Zealand. It was related to modern flightless ratites (ostrich, emu, rhea, cassowary, kiwi). So far, it’s the largest bird we’ve ever found. Because the moa evolved on New Zealand, which doesn’t have any native mammals, the moa took on a lot of the roles that mammals typically would fill in the northern hemisphere. So moa we’re basically filling the same niche as deer would do in Europe or North America.

      Unfortunately, the moa was hunted to extinction once Polynesians discovered New Zealand. The first people to arrive in New Zealand didn’t understand how slow moa were at reproducing, or how few chicks they produced. So they overhunted them very quickly, and were totally extinct by the time Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1770.

    • Photo: Louise de Raad

      Louise de Raad answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      I love the kingfisher bird. While I was working in Botwana every day I would travel using a mokoro (a wooden dug-out canoe) to get to my study site. In the reeds I could always hear this little kingfisher and I made it my personal quest (!!) to photograph it. The kingfisher never knew we were in fierce competition and that I won! Lovely birds, those little kingfishers and beautiful colours! http://animal-wildlife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/kingfisher.html CHECK IT OUT!

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      I think Blackbirds are really nice and they sing nicely too 🙂 I find it interesting that the female blackbird is brown and the male is black!

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