Millions of years ago there was a family of truly ‘giant’, but flightless, birds, the Moas of New Zealand, the Elephant birds of Madagascar and the Terror birds of South America. Some of these birds stood 10 feet high and laid eggs the size of dustbins.

To-day, our biggest birds, the Ostriches of Africa, the Cassowaries of Australia and the Emus and the Rheas of South America are related directly to these ancient giants and along with them are a few other smaller birds such as the Kiwis of New Zealand and the Tinamous of South America.

 

One aspect of their biology that links all these birds is the structure of their feathers. When you see a bird preening, it is ‘zipping’ its feathers together, this ensures that each feather is tightly connected, enabling smooth and effective flight. Like their ancient ancestors, the Tinamous and Rheas of South America have split feather shafts that cannot be ‘zipped’ together and is the main reason why Rheas are not capable to fly and Tinamous, only poorly and then for very short distances.

The Tinamous rely on their cryptic camouflage to avoid detection by predators.

Paula and I have seen a few species, but they are notoriously difficult to photograph.

Above is pair of Elegant-Crested Tinamous, a common and widespread species of the Monte desert.

The image below is of the Ornate Tinamou a species of the Pre-puna and High Andean Steppes.

 

 

A Quebracho Crested-Tinamou which we saw in the Copo National Park, in the province of Santiago del Estero, Argentina. The Copo National Park is difficult to access, the last 25 km being along a rough dirt track, in dry weather any vehicle can get through but if it is wet, the road is treacherous and only possible with 4×4 capabilty.

There are no facilities at all in the Copo National Park, but its a great location for birdwatching and for wildlife photography.

 

Nothuras are very closely related to Tinamous.  This Spotted Nothura was photographed in the Ibera Marshes, Corrientes, Argentina.