A bird that does not know how to fly is perceived as strange as it knows how to swim. Why are wings needed if they cannot lift into the air? However, there are many birds that cannot fly: there are ostriches running across the expanses of Africa, penguins living on the icy coast of Antarctica, and kiwis in New Zealand.

Although, of course, when compared with the number of species of flying birds, there are very few unintelligible people in the world. This is natural, because those who know how to fly, it is easier to survive in this cruel world.

The benefits of flying birds

If the formidable lion creeps up to the gazelle, then the only thing she can do is try to escape. And if the cat wants to catch a sparrow, then he can, with flapping wings, take off vertically and be immediately completely safe. Those who know how to fly have other advantages. In search of food, you can fly long distances, and this is much more profitable than scouring in search of food on the ground. Knowing how to fly, you can build a nest for raising offspring at such a height where a dangerous enemy does not reach the chicks.

Interesting fact: flying birds - it’s easier to survive in this cruel world.

The fact that birds can fly helped them become the second largest class of vertebrates. There are about 8500 species of birds in the world, and only 4000 species of mammals (one of them is you and me). The most numerous and successfully surviving type of animals are insects; there are almost 1 million species of them (by the way, almost all of them can fly).

Why can some birds not fly?

First birds on earth

Scientists believe that before these birds also knew how to fly, but then, during evolution, for some reason they lost this ability. The earliest fossil remains of birds date back some 150 million years ago. Scientists called this bird Archeopteryx. This bird looked creepy enough. Imagine she had claws on her wings and teeth in her beak. Studying the remains of Archeopteryx, scientists came to the conclusion that this bird really could not fly. She could only plan from a height.

The appearance of wings in birds

Archeopteryx and other birds that came to replace him came from dinosaurs. Indeed, scientists suggest that small dinosaurs had feathers on their skin for warming. Perhaps some of these creatures were born with slightly different forelimbs, with which they could rise low in the air and fly small distances. By the same chance, others could be born with forelimbs, more like wings that could be used for flight. The appearance of wings is a huge qualitative leap in the evolution of reptiles.

Soon the birds spread around the world. They settled on islands such as Madagascar or New Zealand. Unable to free flight birds appeared precisely on the islands. It is believed that the following has happened. Some birds found very comfortable living conditions on the islands: the absence of formidable predators and an abundance of food. Birds born with underdeveloped wings or no wings at all survived as successfully as birds with full wings.Species such as ostriches, in the end, began to be born with highly developed legs and with small vestigial wings, practically devoid of flying muscles.

Interesting fact: some birds found the islands so comfortable living conditions that the need for frequent flights simply disappeared, and they rarely began to fly.

Birds that can't fly

Ostriches still thrive. However, for example, the Dodo birds that inhabited the islands of the Indian Ocean were unlucky. People hunted them for tasty meat, and pigs ate eggs. Currently, not a single Dodo specimen is left. The view has disappeared. There is a special case with penguins. Their wings are adapted for rowing in water, and in this sport penguins are very successful. They swim beautifully, moving in the water with the help of wings.

Here are some more birds that can't fly:

Nandu

If an ostrich lives in Australia, then on the South American plains there lives a nanda, which also does not know how to fly and runs very fast.

Emu

Emu, the plumage of this bird looks like a fur coat.
Cassowary is a bird with a horn helmet on its head. Both live in Australian forests.

Kiwi

This bird, by contrast, is rather small. She is no more than a chicken and almost devoid of wings. Kiwi hides all day in the thicket of the forest, and at night searches for food in the ground - insects and worms. It lives in New Zealand.