Andrew:Takahe

Hello, this post is about a special bird called the Takahe. This bird is endangered and has under 150 left in the world. I saw this bird at the Te Anau bird sanctuary where we decided to take some photos. This large flightless bird is a member of the rail family of birds and is about the size of a very large hen. They are the largest member of the rail family. This bird likes to eat the leaf base and other parts of the tussock or other grasses, yet they do eat invertebrates, mainly during the chick rearing session. This bird has the most of its numbers at the Fiordland, Te Anau bird sanctuary. Strangely this flightless bird has wings for showing off to its mate. It was thought to be extinct from 1898 to 1948 until it was rediscovered with barely any population. For the last 70 years we have made various conservation efforts and most are working. Slowly but surely their numbers are growing.

Here are some pictures I took of this rare and endangered bird.

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post, thank you for reading this.