The biggest birds: photo and description

People do not get tired of admiring the birds. After all, they can what is not given to a person - to fly! And the birds have beauty, amazing voices that give joy, and a host of other qualities that cause our admiration.

Today, the object of our attention will be the large birds inhabiting the Earth.

African ostrich is a real giant

The first one we will recall is the African ostrich - a bird worthy of admiration and respect. After all, not only is she the tallest and heaviest feathered creature in the world, so the ostrich also runs faster than a horse!

These large birds in short distances are able to reach speeds of up to 70 km / h, and they are helped by strong long legs with just two flat fingers. By the way, anatomically the legs of this bird are similar to the structure of the camel's limbs. And thanks to them, the ostrich, it turns out, makes four-meter steps during the run! This is a bird!

Cassowary is a bird with a "horned" head

A very impressive bird, though somewhat inferior to ostriches, is a helmeted cassowary, inhabiting Australia and New Guinea. Its growth reaches 1.5 m, and it weighs almost 80 kg. Just like ostriches, these birds do not fly, but they can reach speeds of up to 50 km / h.

Indonesians at one time called cassowary a horned head, because his skull also adorns the bone plate, which grows throughout the life of the bird. Its size reaches 17 centimeters. Especially large such plates are in males. By the way, about her appointment among biologists is still hot debate.

But not only the original crown is decorated with these large birds - red or bright orange cutaneous outgrowths in the form of earrings descend to their chest. Their body is covered with black, friable and soft plumage, more like the animal's hair than the feathers of a bird.

Condor - a resident of the prairies

But large birds not only walk on the ground, they still know how to fly high. One of them is the Californian condor. Before him in the olden times, the American Indians worshiped, believing that on his huge wings the sun rests.

The length of the body of the condor is 1.35 m, and it weighs about 12 kg and, despite these impressive dimensions, flies perfectly. After all, the span of its wings reaches 3.25 m, which allows the bird to soar at an altitude of 4,500 m, using air currents.

The condor has a very remarkable appearance - a black big bird with a white fluffy "collar" on its neck and a reddish, absolutely bald head, decorated with a fleshy crest.

Condor is a predator, scavenger, from far away seeing the victim and capable of eating several kilograms of meat at a time. Often after a plentiful meal, he can not even get up in the air.

Bird of prey marabu

On the African continent, in India and Indonesia, there is another large bird, the Marabou. Its weight reaches 9 kg, and the wingspan - 3 m. Outwardly it resembles a stork, although it has, like a neck, a featherless head, armed with a large (up to 30 cm) beak.

On the neck of adult marabu there is a large cutaneous growth that, by the way, causes scientists to still puzzle over what the bird needs for it.

Marabu is a predator living in the savanna near water bodies. He enters the battle for food not only with vultures, but also with jackals, and more often than not proves himself a winner. But it feeds on the marab not only with carrion, but also with small animals: its prey is even made by newborn crocodiles.

By the way, the marabou recently became regulars of dumps, than they bring a noticeable benefit to a person, clearing them.

The largest seabird is the albatross

The wandering albatross is the largest bird of 21 species of its brethren. The range of its wings is 3.5 m, and it weighs about 13 kg. This is a magnificent glider. It is believed that the albatross is able to overcome distances of up to 6,000 km in just 12 days.

Among the researchers, the case is also known when the albatross, ringed on one of the islands in the Indian Ocean, again fell into the hands of scientists already in South America. So, he covered a distance of 10 000 km!

These big white birds With black wings Spend in flight over the water surface a huge amount of time. It's normal for them months, and even years, not to see sushi. But they have a unique topographic memory, returning for reproduction always in the same place. Each bird flies to the place of its birth, where it produces offspring.

Pelican

Bird with a large beak (Reaching a length of 50 cm) - the Australian pelican - is also considered the largest flying bird on this continent. And thanks to a record ratio of body size and beak, the Australian pelican is included in the Guinness Book of Records.

For sure many saw an amazing beak in the shape of a pelican. A feathered angler uses it as a net. He immerses an open beak into the water and as soon as something gets there, closes it and presses it against his chest. This helps to dislodge water and arrange the fish so that it is more convenient to swallow. And pelicans living on saline ponds use their huge beak to collect rainwater.

Toucan - another feather, famous for its beak

By the way, remembering about the big beaks, you can not ignore the toucan. In addition, it is not only a bird with a large beak, but also a very beautiful feathered bird.

Especially good are iridescent toucans - black, with lemon-yellow cheeks and chest. And the size of its colorful, colored in color from green to orange beak is about 50% of the size of the bird itself!

By the way, why he needs a toucan, scientists puzzled for a long time. And not so long ago, researchers from the Canadian University of Brock and the Brazilian São Paulo came to the conclusion that with the help of its huge beak, the toucan regulates body temperature. When the heat comes, the beak quickly heats up, taking away the heat from the body and giving it away into the air, and it helps in this the network of blood vessels that this part of the body of the toucan is permeated with.

Bustard - The heaviest flying feathered

Describing large birds, we paid attention to their growth, the wingspan and even the size of the beak, but listing them, we can not ignore the bustard.

Bustards are large birds with strong legs and a long neck. But, in addition, it is also the heaviest birds among all flying birds. The weight of the bustard reaches 20 kg.

They dwell on huge treeless plains, hunting small vertebrates and insects. Do not disdain carrion. And Bustards nest on the bare ground. A male trying to charm a female is an amazing sight. He dissolves his wings and tail, inflates his throaty bag and, throwing his head back, becomes like a large shuttlecock, which is played in badminton.

Crowned eagle - a bird that causes fear

In the central and southern regions of Africa, large birds-predators, capable of attacking even humans, inhabit the crowned eagles. They are named so for the characteristic feathers rising on the head during the danger. The length of the body of this eagle is about 1 m, and the wings in the span are 2 m.

The main dish in the menu of these birds are monkeys and even antelopes. Due to its size, and also strong wings and strong, thick finger, claws, this bird is capable of lifting 16 kg of weight in the air! Which, by the way, exceeds the mass of her own body 4 times.

The crowned eagle searches for the output, sitting on the side, and then attacks lightly, without giving the victim time to escape. If this is not a very large animal, then it is eaten whole, with bones, and prey is torn to pieces and then transferred to a place convenient for eating (usually this tree).

Like other eagles, this bird can not stand the neighborhood of its relatives, zealously patrolling hunting grounds. But her friend chooses the eagle once and for all.