- Ostriches
- Endemic to Africa – used to range all over old world
- Ratites lack the hallux (the last toe)
- Has 2 toes
- Largest living bird – 350-400 pounds, 2.5 meters high
- Lost flight feathers
- Male territoriality and incubation is similar to Tinamous
- 30-40 day incubation, male sits on the nest
- biggest egg weighs 3+lbs
- precocious young will gather with other young, usually
- cooperative brood care
Order Tinamiformes:
- Flying ratites, explosive flyers
- Terrestrial neotropical, lower montain forests to S. Argentina
- Eats small vertebrates, seeds and insects
- Very edible, little blood supply, very tasty
- Vocal behavior – undulating whistle, sing at dawn and dusk, tremlous, long, wavering whistles
- Harbinger of cocktail hour
- 40 species
- Exclusive male parental care – they build nests, court, get multiple females to lay a full clutch for them
- They have a phallus
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