All About Nature: Animals to Paint Online

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Flightless birds evolved from birds that could fly. Many flightless birds evolved on islands that had few predators from which the birds needed to escape. Others use fast swimming or running as an alternative to flying. Some flightless birds (like the ostrich) have developed effective defenses, like big toe claws.

Some differences between flightless birds and flying birds:

Feature	Flying Birds	Flightless Birds
Wings	Longer wings	Shorter wings
Cross-section Shape of Feathers	Asymmetrical feathers	Symmetrical feathers
Number of Feathers	Fewer feathers (large feathers only grow in feather tracks, to keep the weight down)	More feathers (growing all over the body)
Keel (the bone that anchors the muscles that move a bird's wings)	Well-developed keel	Greatly reduced keel
Breastbone	Rounded breastbone	Flat breastbone

Cassowary A huge, flightless bird from Australia with a helmet-like crest on its head.

Common Rhea or Nandu The Common Rhea or Nandu is a large, flightless bird from South America.

Dodo The dodo is an extinct, flightless bird that lived on an island in the Indian Ocean near Africa.

Dinornis The largest bird that ever lived. This flightless bird is extinct, but it lived in New Zealand until the early 1800's.

Emperor Penguin The largest penguin; it lives on ice packs in Antarctica.

Emu The emu is a large, flightless Australian bird.

Jackass Penguin A small penguin from off the coast of southern Africa.

Kakapo A large, flightless, nocturnal, solitary parrot from New Zealand.

Kiwi A chicken-sized insectivore from New Zealand; the smallest ratite.

Moa A huge, extinct, flightless bird from New Zealand.

Ostrich The ostrich is the largest bird. It can't fly, but it is a fast runner.

Penguin Penguins are birds that swim very well but cannot fly.

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