Kiwi bird | Facts & Information

Origin

The Kiwi bird is the national bird of New Zealand. Although protected by state laws, the little bird is in danger of extinction, becoming increasingly difficult to see in the wild.Preferring to emerge especially at night, the bird spends the day hidden in its vision. The Kiwi bird is restricted to New Zealand, where it is protected by law. The bird cannot fly and lives in burrows in Bush forests.

Kiwi is related to the much larger moa Bird, also unable to fly, and extinct in the eighteenth century. A certain species of moa measured 3.7 meters and was the largest bird ever seen.

The indigenous Polynesian population of New Zealand considers these birds to be sacred, belonging to the God of forests. Only the chieftain of the ancient Maori warriors had the right to eat their flesh and use the feathers in the manufacture of a cape that he wore on his back.

Kiwi Food

The Kiwi bird lives alone in moist forests with soft soil, into which it can easily penetrate in search of food. With the help of her well-developed sense of smell and her long beak, she finds larvae of insects, worms, cicadas, centipedes, fallen leaves and other small animals.

In search of her favorite food she is driven especially by the sense of smell, after adapting to the night life the eye is much regressed (it is almost blind). Hearing is well developed. It can push its entire beak into the ground to reach the desired food.

The diet of a Kiwi bird consists mainly of insects and earthworms. The bird uses its long beak to extract worms and insects from the ground. Kiwi is an extremely fast bird, it can easily outrun a human. The foot is provided with three fingers, which it can adapt to use as a weapon, notching the enemy with its sharp claws.

Features Kiwi

They are terrestrial birds, small in size, with a stocky body, short and thick neck. They can reach a height of 50-65 cm and weight of 1.5-4 kg. Their beak is very long, CA. 15 cm, slightly bent downwards, in its terminal part the nostrils are opened, and at the base it is provided with numerous bristles.

The wings appear as two stumps, hidden well in feathers, the legs are short and thick, have four fingers each. The body is covered by long, soft, hanging down feathers of chestnut color. It has short, stocky legs and no tail.

Her wings hang around her body, but she is not able to use them. It has wiry, grey/brown hair, cat-like whiskers and a long, slightly curved beak. It is the only bird that has nostrils in its beak, located close to the tip. Chickens have the same color as adults.

Before the arrival of the Maori people in New Zealand – an event that occurred about 1000 years ago – Kiwi birds were plentiful in these lands, with no natural predators threatening their existence. The Maori population, however, discovered that the hair of Kiwi birds is a good material for their cloaks. This people also gave the name to these birds, naming them after the sharp scream, which seems to say "kee-wee".

With the arrival of the white man in the nineteenth century, the Kiwi bird began to be sought out for use in zoos, museums and private collections around the world. The introduction of non-native predators, such as feral cats and possums, has also had a negative effect on the Kiwi bird population, along with deforestation, gin traps and deaths from motor cars.

The six types of Kiwi birds are: North Island brown Kiwi, small spotted Kiwi, large spotted Kiwi, Brown Okario, Haast Tokoeka and Southern Tokoeka. The bird is almost blind, and can see only a few meters in front. The female hatches an extremely large egg. In fact, a 2.2 kg bird can hatch an egg weighing almost half a kg. it is known about Kiwi birds that they can live up to the age of 40 years.

In 1991, a conservation and reconstruction program was launched in New Zealand to save the bird from extinction. Despite this, Kiwi birds continue to disappear at a rate of 5.8% per year. The programme is still successful in terms of controlled bird breeding, and the work of the people involved will see Kiwi birds stay with us for a while.

Kiwi Breeding

During the breeding season they live in pairs. The female lays two to four eggs at long intervals. In relation to body size they are very heavy, reach 450 g.

Using her legs with very strong claws, she digs at the roots of trees some dimples in which she lays eggs.

They are hatched only by the male. After about three months the chicks break the Shell and come out already covered with feathers.