With American Thanksgiving around the corner, turkey is on everyone’s mind! So this week, we’re taking a closer look at flightless birds of all shapes and sizes! What prevents some birds from using their wings to fly? Did Australians really start a war against emus? Plus, we’ll answer your burning questions about the sex lives of many, many different kinds of birds! Wow!

Sources:

[Truth or Fail]

Inaccessible Island rail:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790318301763?via%3Dihub

https://gizmodo.com/how-a-tiny-flightless-bird-ended-up-on-an-island-in-the-1830188012

Ostrich egg globes:

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130821-ostrich-globe-map-discovery-science-nation/

Emu War:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-emu-war-in-which-some-large-flightless-birds-unwittingly-foiled-the-australian-army/  

[Fact Off]

Crested penguins:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/s-ppi021016.php

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00265-016-2060-z

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uod-ppc062816.php

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep28785

Ratite reproduction:

https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2011.00858.x

http://mentalfloss.com/article/80394/10-facts-about-cassowaries

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/12/08/finally-the-ostrich-penis-provides-the-answer-to-a-long-standing-question/#.W6FsOZNKhxw

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/ratites/reproduction-of-ratites

[Ask the Science Couch]

Kākāpō:

https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/03/22/happy-hatchday-21-years-of-conservation-success-for-the-kakapo/

https://phys.org/news/2015-11-rimu-berry-game-changer-kakapo.html

https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/060401_kakapo

[Butt One More Thing]

Ostrich urine & feces:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1095643303000060