Ornitology questions

The weight of modern flying birds does not exceed 20 kg (the European and African Great Bustards are the heaviest). The Indian crane is the tallest modern flying bird.

The magnificent frigatebird spends most of its life in the air. The magnificent frigatebird hunts mainly flying fish. It lives in the open waters, islands and coasts of the Western Atlantic Ocean (from Florida and the Caribbean to southern Brazil) and the Eastern Pacific. It owes its name to a puffing throat sac, which when filled with air resembles a frigate sail stretched in the wind. It is found in the flag of Kiribati.

Contrary to popular belief, penguins not only live in the Antarctic, but also, for example, on the South African coast. The northernmost areas of the Equatorial Penguins live on the Galapagos Islands are the most northerly. It is the only species of penguin found in the northern hemisphere.

The Indian darter or oriental darter is like all other anhingas, a cormorant-like species that has a very long neck. The structure of the neck is as in other species of darter with strongly developed muscles about a kink in the neck at the 8th and 9th vertebrae that allows it to be flexed and darted forward with rapid force to stab fish underwater. The fibrous representative of Donitz's bridge is seen attached to the ninth cervical vertebra.

The common shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) is widespread and common in Eurasia, mainly breeding in temperate and wintering in subtropical regions; in winter, it can also be found in the Maghreb. This species is mainly associated with lakes and rivers in open country, breeding in rabbit burrows, tree holes, haystacks or similar. In winter it is common on suitable estuaries and tidal mudflats as well.

The nightingale reed warbler (Acrocephalus luscinius), or Guam reed warbler, is an extinct song bird endemic to Guam. The nightingale reed warbler was driven to extinction by several introduced species. These included the brown tree snake which has also decimated the populations of several other bird species on Guam. Other introduced predators included rats, cats and feral ungulates such as goats or sheep.

The American woodcock is the only species of woodcock inhabiting North America. During migration, their flight speeds have been clocked at 26 to 45 kilometers per hour. However, the slowest flight speed ever recorded for a bird, 8 kilometers per hour, was also recorded for this species.

The hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin), also known as the stinkybird, is a species of tropical bird found in swamps, riparian forests, and mangroves of the Amazon and the Orinoco Delta in South America. It is notable for having chicks that possess claws on two of their wing digits.

The Haast's eagle is an extinct species of eagle that once lived in the South Island of New Zealand. Its massive size is explained as an evolutionary response to the size of its prey, the flightless moa, the largest of which could weigh 230 kg. Haast's eagle became extinct around 1400, after the moa were hunted to extinction by the first Māori.

Owl's eye colour depends on the time of day in which they hunt. The ones that hunt during daylight have yellow eyes. The ones that hunt at night but also at the evenings and mornings have orange eyes. Black eyes are typical to owls that hunt only at night.