The Kiwi

by Christopher (NZ)

The Kiwi House and native bird park in Otorohanga, New Zealand, is owned and operated by the Otorohanga Zoological Society, Inc.: a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of New Zealand's native wildlife through education, display, and breeding programs.

Kiwi's are an endangered flightless birds. The kiwi is the national symbol of New Zealand and Kiwi is a common term for a New Zealand resident.

Waitomo Caves School students visited the Kiwi House as part of our study of the kiwi. Here are some of the things we found out:.

• The Kiwi is a unique flightless bird belonging to the ratite family of birds which includes the emus and ostriches.
• There are four species and six varieties of kiwi: the Northern Brown, Okarito Brown, Southern Tokoeka, Haast Tokoeka, Little Spotted and the Great Spotted kiwi.

The kiwi is:

• a flightless, nocturnal creature
• has no tail
  
• body is covered with hair-like loosely-attached feathers giving it a shaggy look
  
• body is cone-shaped
  
• head is small
  
• legs are powerful and muscular
  
• wings, which end in a small claw, are only about 30 to 50 mm. in length
  
• differs from other birds in that the nostrils are at the tip of the bill instead of the base
  
• has a well-developed sense of smell, being one of the few birds to have developed this faculty
  
• aided in their movements by cat-like whiskers
  
• females lay an egg proportionately larger to their size than any other bird
  
• diet consists mainly of earthworms, adult and larval beetles, caterpillars, cicadas, and spiders
  
• also eats fallen berries and seeds.