[OwlTalon]

How many of you know....

1. The world's only poisonous birds

2. The largest flying bird ever

3. The first native North American bird to go extinct

4. and the only bird to become completely wingless?

Also.....

1. Name the four birds with the largest wingspans

2. List 6 island birds that dissapeared in the last couple of centuries

3. And answer "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

[Edward woodwood]

1) The Pitohuis of New Guinea

[Keith Dickinson]

2/ Argentavis Magnificens? wingspan 8 metres?

[David FG]

4. The Moa (Kiwis do have tiny, rudimentary wings.)

[jacana]

2. Hispaniolan Macaw, Akiapolaau, Dodo, Reunion solitare, Rodrigues Solitare, Brace's emerald

[Jacamar]

First NA bird to go extinct - Great Auk?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The chicken.

[OwlTalon]

Answers

1. The Pitouhis (Pitouhi spp.) and Ifrita (Ifrita kowaldi). These birds both have batrachotoxins in their skin and feathers (Batrachotoxins are the same poisons in poison dart frogs).
2. Argentavis magnificens, the Magnificent Teratorn. These birds had wingspans of over 25 feet.
3. Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius. the last one was shot on Long Island in 1875.
4. The moas of New Zealand (Family Dinornitidae) had no wingbones in their bodies at all.

1. I couldn't narrow it to four, but I think the biggest are Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans, 12 feet), Andean and California Condors (Vultur gryphus and Gymnogyps californianus, 10 feet), Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus, 10 feet), and American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, 10 feet). I may be wrong here. edit=I meant biggest wingspans alive. Teratorn don't count.
2. Several answers. Jacana probably got most of them.
3. Egg. Dinosaurs, fish, and insects have been laying eggs long before chickens (Sorry, that was low).

[jacana]

a large proportion of extinct birds were islanders

[London Birder]

the Lyme Regis Bush Tickler doesn't actually exist (I've looked), nor does the Ohme Goolies Bird.

at 42.5cm the male Argentine Lake Duck (Oxyura vittata) has the longest penis in the avian world ... in the case of this species one should be thankfull they haven't yet reassigned it to a group other than the stifftails ...

unless of course you happen to be a girly vittata.

[Jacamar]

Originally Posted by TCondorOwl92

Answers

3. Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius. the last one was shot on Long Island in 1875.

The last Great Auk in NA was seen in the 1830s.

[Phil Carter]

[quote=TCondorOwl92]How many of you know....

1. The world's only poisonous birdsQUOTE]


Tesco Value Chicken

Phil

[OwlTalon]

However, Great Auks were not endemic to NA, the inhabited the whole noethern Hempisphere. I said native, I meant a bird that was only found on NA.

[OwlTalon]

Ok, what was the longest wingspan to ever take to the skies? Of any animal.

[David FG]

Originally Posted by TCondorOwl92

Ok, what was the longest wingspan to ever take to the skies? Of any animal.

The Quetzalcoatlus (a Pterosaur.)

[OwlTalon]

How big are they? I always heard 40-45 feet, but recently I read that we were wrong and they had wingspans of 50 or even 60 feet! So?

[MarcellC]

2) largest flying bird

I know the heaviest is the Kori Bustard from Africa going at around 15kg

[MarcellC]

And a bit of research (I was intrigued) about poisonous birds. I have to humbly admit I didn't know there were poisonous birds.

There are only two species in the world both from Papua, New Guinea:
1) Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous, also called the "garbage bird")
2) Ifrita (Ifrita kowaldi)

It is said the toxin (homobatrachotoxin, a steroidal alkaloid) is concentrated in these bird's feathers and skin, and is probably obtained from some plant that they eat.

[Hotspur]

3) surely by evolution the first Junglefowl came from a precurser species so if you drew a line between them its parent must have been a "protochicken" and thus the egg came first. Also the egg like in all creatures that sexually reproduce must have been formed yet inferile before it was fertilised and became chicken zygote.

[Xenospiza]

Originally Posted by MarcellC

And a bit of research (I was intrigued) about poisonous birds. I have to humbly admit I didn't know there were poisonous birds.

There are only two species in the world both from Papua, New Guinea:
1) Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous, also called the "garbage bird")
2) Ifrita (Ifrita kowaldi)

It is said the toxin (homobatrachotoxin, a steroidal alkaloid) is concentrated in these bird's feathers and skin, and is probably obtained from some plant that they eat.

You are not totally right (the poison is from a beetle).
All you want to know about poisonous birds (there are more than two!) is written down nicely here: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publicatio...uineabirds.cfm
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041106/fob3.asp

[MarcellC]

:) Thanks Xenospiza. Exactly why I love birding - always more to learn and know.

Cheers