Learning about Kiwis

Yesterday we had Bridget from the Queenstown Wildlife Park come and talk to us about the kiwi and what is being done to save these special little birds. Wow! She was a great speaker and we all learnt so much including our teachers. We saw a x-ray of a kiwi with its egg inside it. The poor mother kiwi having to push out hat big huge egg. Thank you so much Bridget. We will be writing to you next week. Click on the kiwi to find out about the Kiwis at the Wildlife Park.

Did You Know...

Their feathers are soft and hair-like
The legs are stout and muscular and each of the four toes has a large claw.
The ear openings are large and well developed, with very long bristles at the base of the bill.
Kiwis have small eyes that don't work well in the day time
They have very strong legs, which help them in burrowing and ripping apart rotten logs.
A female kiwi is larger than the male.
Kiwis live in pairs and mate for life.
A kiwi is extremely territorial in nature and will protect its ’patch’ (as much as 40 hectares) by calling or chasing the intruder and will fight using its razor-sharp claws. The mother and father kiwi chase their baby out of their territory when it is old enough and it has to find its own!
The egg of a kiwi is quite large, as compared with the size of its body and averages 20% of the female weight.
At night, a kiwi can often be heard making snuffling noises, which is caused by the bird trying to clear dirt out of its nostrils, when it is searching for food.
Kiwi is one of the world’s oddest endangered birds and is closest to a mammal in the bird world.
It is the only known bird to have external nostrils at the end of its bill and one of the few to have a highly developed sense of smell.