What is a Kiwi Bird?

A kiwi bird is a bird in the family Apterygidae. Kiwis are native to New Zealand, and there are five recognized kiwi species living today, all of which are endangered. These small brown birds are also the national bird of New Zealand, and they have been used in regimental standards, crests, and other decorative devices which symbolize New Zealand since the 1800s. In fact, the kiwi is so closely associated with the national identity of New Zealand that New Zealanders sometimes refer to themselves as “kiwis.”

These birds are occasionally jokingly referred to as evolutionary leftovers, and they are in fact the lone survivors of a once much larger bird family. They have a number of bizarre traits, including a few which are found in no other bird species in the world. Kiwis are ratites, meaning that they lack a keel to which flight muscles can be attached, so they are incapable of flight. They are the smallest of the ratites, weighing in at around the size of a domestic chicken, and they also have the stubbiest residual wings.

Kiwi hens are capable of laying eggs around the size of ostrich eggs, giving the birds the largest egg to body size ratio of any birds. When baby kiwis are born, they are covered in a scraggly version of adult plumage, and they survive on yolk reserves for a week or so until exploring the outside world. Mature kiwis are light brown and rather chubby, with very long beaks. Unlike other birds, kiwis have their nostrils at the end of their beaks, and biologists suspect that this allows kiwis to sniff out their prey, compensating for the extremely poor eyesight which characterizes these birds.

Kiwi birds are hard to spot in the wild. They are seminocturnal and very shy, preferring to hide from humans and potential predators. Many people only get a chance to see a kiwi in captivity, or in photographs and engravings which depict these birds. The strange appearance of the kiwi gives the bird a slightly comic appearance, and biologists who work with kiwis claim that the birds also appear to have a mild sense of humor, playing games with each other as well as organizing tricks on their keepers.

If you're wondering whether the bird or the fruit came first, the answer is that the kiwi bird preceded the kiwifruit. “Kiwi” is a Maori word which imitates the call of the bird. The kiwifruit was named in the 1950s, when exporters feared that the original name, “Chinese gooseberry,” wouldn't appeal to a broader market. Taking advantage of the associations of kiwis with New Zealand, clever produce marketers created an instant market for the fruit by giving it a name which was associated with an exotic and distant locale.

The Kiwi bird is a unique, flightless bird native to New Zealand. It is known for its small size, round body, and long, slender beak. Kiwis are nocturnal and have a highly developed sense of smell, unusual in birds. They are a national symbol of New Zealand and are found in various habitats across the country, from forests to scrublands.

Kiwi birds are flightless due to their evolutionary history on the isolated islands of New Zealand, where historically there were no mammalian predators. This isolation led to the development of certain traits like small wings, heavy bones, and robust legs, which are not conducive to flight but are advantageous for a ground-dwelling lifestyle.

Kiwi birds are omnivores with a diet that includes insects, spiders, worms, grubs, and some fruits. Their long beaks are perfectly adapted for probing the soil and leaf litter to find food, and their keen sense of smell helps them locate prey underground. They forage mainly at night due to their nocturnal nature.

Kiwi birds lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any bird species in the world. A female kiwi can lay an egg that is about 20% of her body weight. The male then incubates the egg for approximately 75-85 days. After hatching, the chick is relatively mature but will stay in the burrow for up to a week before venturing outside.

Yes, Kiwi birds are endangered, with several species at varying levels of threat. Factors contributing to their decline include habitat destruction, predation by introduced species like dogs, cats, and stoats, and collisions with vehicles. Conservation efforts in New Zealand aim to protect these birds and their habitats to prevent further population decline.

New Zealand has implemented significant conservation efforts to protect Kiwi birds, including predator control programs, habitat restoration, and breeding programs like Operation Nest Egg. This initiative involves removing eggs or chicks from the wild, raising them in a predator-free environment, and then releasing them back into the wild once they are large enough to defend themselves.