Today I’ll begin posting selections from the 26 major groups of birds photographed by evolutionary biologist John Avise, and displayed in extenso on his site “Avise’s birds of the world“. I’ve posted some of his photos before, but because I can’t remember which ones, we’ll do this systematically, with posts appearing from time to time. Today we’ll start with the ratites. Notes are John’s.
Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) adult; little sexual dimorphism (Farm; 2008-01-02):
Head portrait; note red iris, blue on face and throat (Farm; 2008-01-02)
Greater Rhea (Rhea americana). Strutting its stuff; adults retain downy feathers (Zoo; 2011-11-27)
Head portrait of dark-phase bird (Zoo; 2011-11-27)
Common ostrich (Struthio camelus), female; gray wings and back; flightless (South Africa; 2007-07-16):
Posing for a portrait; note the broad bill (South Africa; 2007-06-30):
Little tinamou (Crypturellus soui): this tiny ground-dweller is running for cover (Panama; 2008-05-28)
Elegant crested tinamou (Eudromia elegans), mostly terrestrial (Zoo; 2008-10-21):
Nice! I look forward to the series!
Lovely shots! Always been fascinated by ratites.
o/` Big birds don’t fly …
I like the head portraits. They show personality. The color of eye is often a surprise.
Lots of feathers but can’t fly. It must take so much energy to fly that they’d rather take the chance of being eaten, evolutionarily speaking.
Good initiative, and wonderful photos.
Are we going to see all the ratites, or just a pick?
I like the pattern on the elegant crested tinamou. Lovely pictures.
Just to note: tinamous aren’t ratites; they can fly (though by all accounts poorly) and ratites are flightless. However, tinamous are also more closely related to some ratites than those ratites are to other ratites. Tinamous, it turns out, are the sister group of the extinct moas. And ostriches are outside the group of other ratites plus tinamous.
Emus run very oddly.