The bird that lays an egg a quarter of its own body weight
This bird lays an egg weighing up to a quarter of its own body.
Which one is REALLY true about the Kiwi?
The short version
The kiwi is a flightless, nocturnal New Zealand bird that behaves more like a mammal. A female lays an egg up to a quarter of her body weight — proportionally the largest of any bird — leaving so little room she can barely eat. It also has shaggy hair-like feathers, heavy marrow-filled bones, and is the only bird with nostrils at the tip of its beak.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Kiwi lays an egg weighing up to a quarter of her own body weight, the biggest egg for body size of any bird.
- ✓The Kiwi carries that egg until it leaves so little room inside her that she can barely eat.
- ✓The Kiwi is the only bird on Earth with nostrils at the very tip of its beak, used to sniff out worms underground.
- ✓The Kiwi grows shaggy, hair-like feathers instead of the smooth ones most birds have.
- ✓The Kiwi hatches chicks that come out fully feathered and ready to run, and never feeds them.
You could line up about 3 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
This bird lays an egg so enormous it takes up most of the space inside her body. Meet the kiwi, a flightless, nocturnal bird from New Zealand that behaves more like a mammal than a bird. A female kiwi can lay an egg weighing up to a quarter of her entire body weight. Scaled up, that is a bit like a human giving birth to a six year old. Near the end, the egg leaves so little room inside her that she can barely eat at all. Kiwis are strange in other ways too. Their feathers are shaggy and hair-like, their bones are heavy and filled with marrow instead of being hollow, and they are the only birds on Earth with nostrils at the very tip of the beak, which they use to sniff out worms underground. Their chicks are just as odd. They hatch fully feathered and ready to run, and their parents never feed them at all. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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“The Kiwi lays an egg weighing up to a quarter of her own body weight, the biggest egg for body size of any bird.”
“The Kiwi delivers a venomous bite that thins the blood and crashes the victim's blood pressure, so prey slowly bleeds out.”
“The Kiwi carries that egg until it leaves so little room inside her that she can barely eat.”