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