Kiwis

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Do you know an endangered, flightless and fuzzy bird that is native to New Zealand? Yes, the kiwi. Many people believe that there's only one specie of this bird even though there is five species. The five species of Kiwi are the Great Spotted Kiwi, the Okarito Kiwi, the Little Spotted Kiwi, the North Island Kiwi, and the Southern Island Kiwi. Kiwis lay very large eggs, their eggs are the same size as an ostrich egg, their egg is about 120 millimetres long and 80 millimeters in diameter. The kiwi’s scientific name is apteryx, the name apteryx mean to be wingless. The kiwi belong to an ancient group of birds that are flightless like the ostrich, the emu and the moa. The kiwi has a lot of interesting qualities like how it calls out at night to mark their territory and stay in touch with their friend. They start to call out about 2 hours after dark, and will also call out before daylight and before that it has it has a meal.

Diet
The kiwi diet is made up of both plant and meat sources of food, as a kiwi is an omnivore. They eat a lot of invertebrates, animals without a backbone. Which means they are likely to be an insect or a bug. Kiwis don't need a lot of water as one of their food sources, is the earthworm, which is made up of 85% water. Kiwis eat a lot of worms because luckily New Zealand is rich in worms but when kiwis do drink from a body of water they immerse their beak, tips back it's head and gurgles the water down. Kiwis are nocturnal which helps them, this helps them to not get overly hot or dried out in the sun. So this supports their diet and also helps keep them safer as they are out at night when there is a less of a threat.

Predators

Kiwis are flightless birds so they can’t get away from their predators that easily, they are living and hunting food on the forest floor which means they are easy prey. One physical adaptation is that the kiwi is a fast runner, kiwis are just as fast as a human. Did you know that there were once 12 million kiwis in the world! But now there are only 100,000 kiwis because of dogs, ferrets, possums, birds and cats. An average of 27 Kiwis die EACH WEEK. A single roaming dog can wipe out a whole population of Kiwis. Kiwis can camouflage into their habitat to stop their prey from seeing them.

Appearance

Emus, ostrich, moa and the elephant bird are the kiwis closest relatives. However their appearance is rather different from these birds. The bird has a unusual beak, it's beak is long and on the tip of it is it's beak is where the nostrils are located. This is very unusual and the kiwi is the only bird to have their nostrils located at the end. Kiwis can't fly so there feathers have evolved a unique texture to suit a ground based lifestyle. The kiwi is warm, shaggy, and have a human like hair. The kiwi also only has 13 feathers. The Kiwis temperature is lower than most other birds it's only 39-42. The female kiwi is also usually larger than the male

In conclusion the kiwi is an interesting and unique bird that is native to New Zealand. To help the kiwi live a long life and continue to be found in New Zealand we have to understand the kiwi. It is important that the kiwi has the right food and can live in places where predators can not wipe them out. The endangered kiwi is important to New Zealand and we want the kiwi to be around for future generations.