Moa birds have been divided into eleven species and six genera, all of which are non-flying birds that have lived in New Zealand. The two largest species, diornis robustus and diornis novaezelandiae, reached a height of 3.7 m and weight of almost 250kg.
All 11 species are the only wading birds without wings. They are predominantly herbivorous birds that lived in the New Zealand Forest in subalpine and shrubby areas. They lived for thousands of years until the appearance of an eagle species that supposedly led the species to extinction.
Initially it was assumed that the closest bird to the MOA is the kiwi bird, but DNA tests published in 2005 showed that the Moa comes closest to the Emu bird. Research done in 2010 tells us that the Emu is not the closest relative, but a small terrestrial bird from South America that can fly named Tinamu.Evolution
Since Moa belongs to a group of birds that has no wings and can fly, the following questions have been raised: How did these birds get to New Zealand and where from ? It is thought to have been in New Zealand 70 million years ago when it was glued to Antarctica.
Food
Although scientists have never seen any Moa feed, they deduced from The Shape of the fossils that MOA birds ate plants, twigs and leaves from dwarf trees and shrubs. Just as many other birds also swallow sand or small pebbles in addition to food to aid digestion.
Locomotion
Traces of Moa claws have been found all over the North Island. There's even a picture of the bird's footprints from 1911. Analyzing the distance between the tracks can be said that the speed of movement is small, only a few km / h.
Eggshells are commonly found in archaeological excavations and sand dunes off the coast of New Zealand. Thirty-six whole eggs exist in the museum's collections. They differ greatly in size, probably due to the size of the species types (120 – 240mm). most eggs were white.
