Birds That Will Never Fly….

Flightless birds are birds which lack the ability to fly, relying instead on their ability to run or swim, and are thought to have evolved from their flying ancestors.There are about forty species in existence today, the best known being the ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea, kiwi, and penguin. It’s believed by some that most flightless birds  evolved in the absence of predators on islands, and lost the power of flight because they had few enemies — although this is likely not the case for the ratites; the ostrich, emu and cassowary, as all have claws on their feet to use as a weapon against predators.

Ostrich

Ostrich from the Louisville Zoo, with lovely blue eyes

Feet

These feet likely belong to an emu or rhea.

Ostrich Chase

A male ostrich chases after one of the females in his harem.

Baby Ostrich

This young ostrich was photographed in the zoo of Basel, Switzerland.

Ostriches

Ostriches, Villa de Leyva, Colombia

Kiwi

The kiwi is the sole survivor of an ancient order of birds, including the now extinct moas of New Zealand. Kiwi eggs are proportionately larger, compared with the size of the adult female, than the eggs of any other bird. Ostriches share the order Struthioniformes with the emu, kiwi, and other ratites—in this picture I tried to link these two flightless birds by showing a kiwi on an ostrich egg, as both were either endangered or once endangered species and we should take good care of them.

Emu

One of the largest birds in the world

Walking Ostrich

Ostrich near Sossusvlei, Namibia

Ostrich

Ostrich on the beach at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Yellow-Eyed Penguin

I was on the southernmost tip of South New Zealand Island where I found this guy just walking around.

Photograph by Anthony Antenucci