Image: Chris McColl. Australia's rarest bird of prey - the red goshawk - is facing extinction, with Cape York Peninsula now the only place in Queensland known to support breeding populations.
Cassowaries are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and West Papua), the Aru Islands (Maluku), and northeastern Australia. Three cassowary species are extant. The most common, the southern cassowary, is the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu.
The oozlum bird, also spelled ouzelum, is a legendary creature found in Australian and British folk tales and legends.
Fifty thousand years ago, Australia was populated by big birds—really big birds. One of them, known as mihirunga, or the “thunder bird,” was six times the size of a modern emu; it may have weighed in at 250 kilograms and stood more than 2 meters tall.
Provides the first complete overview of the biology of the Australian bustard, Australia's heaviest flying bird.
The Great Kori Bustard (Ardeotis tardi) is the largest modern flying bird, with body masses up to 18 kg (19), but it takes off only with great difficulty by running like taxiing aircraft (20). Could Argentavis, ≈3.5 times heavier than the Great Kori Bustard, take off from the ground?
emu, (Dromaius novaehollandiae), flightless bird of Australia that is the second largest living bird: the emu is more than 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall and may weigh more than 45 kg (100 pounds).
Shoebills are large, prehistoric-looking birds which haunt freshwater marshes and swamps in East Africa, thus fondly referred to by many as the “king of the marshes”.
Mihirungs are sometimes called “demon ducks” because of their great size and close evolutionary relationship with present-day waterfowl and game birds. The flightless, plant-eating birds lived for more than 20 million years.
Dromornis planei was a massive bird with a formidable bill. It belonged to a uniquely Australian family of extinct flightless birds, the dromornithids (mihirungs). Because of the close relationship between mihirungs and ducks, Dromornis planei has been nicknamed the 'Demon Duck of Doom'.
The roc is an enormous legendary bird of prey in the popular mythology of the Middle East. The roc appears in Arab geographies and natural history, popularized in Arabian fairy tales and sailors' folklore. Ibn Battuta tells of a mountain hovering in the air over the China Seas, which was the roc.
The southern, or double-wattled, cassowary is one of three species of cassowary. Impressive and intimidating-looking, these flightless birds are often said to resemble dinosaurs.
The Elephant Birds of Madagascar were huge! Recent fossil evidence has revealed the largest of them all: Vorombe titan. This gargantuan bird– as far as we know, the heaviest bird to ever walk the Earth– was up to 1,400 lb (635 kg) and was 10 ft (3 m) tall.
The grey currawong (Strepera versicolor) is a large passerine bird native to southern Australia, including Tasmania. One of three currawong species in the genus Strepera, it is closely related to the butcherbirds and Australian magpie of the family Artamidae.
While all birds are descended from dinosaurs, the mysterious cassowary is thought to be more similar to ancient dinosaurs than most other birds. Large bodied with fierce claws, these flightless birds also have casques, a helmet-like structure atop the head, which many dinosaurs are believed to have had.
Quetzalcoatlus—a member of the ancient group of flying reptiles called pterosaurs—was the largest flying creature to ever live. This giraffe-sized reptile had thin limbs, a terrifyingly long beak and a whopping 40-foot wingspan.
The family Casuariidae includes three living cassowary species, all of the genus Casuarius: Casuarius casuarius. The southern, or double-wattled cassowary, with a bright blue head, two red wattles, and black feathers, is the largest of the cassowaries.
Ostrich. The mighty ostrich is truly the king of birds. The largest living bird, ostriches can grow up to 9 feet tall and weigh more than 300 pounds.
Overview: Perhaps the world's rarest bird, only one Stresemann's Bristlefront is known to survive in the wild. Unfortunately, this bird is confined to one of the most fragmented and degraded – and vulnerable – forests in the Americas.