Emus--omnivores
Cassowary eats just fruit
Kiwi eats insects.
No ratite can fly
Flightlessness came on its owm
Except Tinamous.
Monogamous is
The Emu. Kiwi life pair.
No polygamy.
Ostrich biggest bird
Nine feet high, threetwenty pounds
Very fast runner.
Passerines common
Sixty percent of all birds
Sparrows in that group.
Sparrows, seed eaters
Nestlings are all fed insects
High protein diet.
Three toes point forward
With special foot structure
Hind one points backwards.
Anisodactyl
Three and one give super grip
Sleeps without falling.
Songbirds have syrinx
Pairs of muscles allow songs
To learn and produce.
Hatched altricial
Naked, blind, and dependent
Gives intelligence.
Diverse feeding types
Seed eaters' bills conical
Sunbirds probing bills.
Stability with
A fused vertebral column
Tendon tightens claws.
Songbirds' origin
Gondwana fifty million
Years so long ago.
On all continents
Adaptive radiation
Not Antarctica.
Passerines diverse
Ecological niches
Evolved rapidly.
Some pestcontrollers.
Others are seed dispersers
And pollinators.
Size range--large Raven
To Short-Tailed Pygmy Tyrant
So very diverse.
Insectivorous
Tyrant is smallest percher
South American.
Looks like a beetle
Or very large bumblebee
Because of small tail.
Trill-call like insects
Snatches prey--leaf undersides
Large domed bag-like nest.