Kakapos are large, flightless parrots native to New Zealand. These birds can’t fly because they have short wings and lack a keel on their breastbone, where other birds have their flight muscles.

More than 99% of birds can fly. But that still leaves many species that evolved to be flightless, including penguins, ostriches, and kiwi birds. In a new study in the journal Evolution ...

All of the flightless birds alive today evolved from ancestors who could fly and later lost that ability. "Going from something that can't fly to flying is quite the engineering challenge, but ...

Penguins are a bit different from other flightless birds. They haven’t just lost the ability to fly– their wings have completely changed shape, turning into strong flippers made for swimming.

No other animal is as inexorably linked with extinction as the dodo, an odd-looking flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean until the late 17th century.

These massive, flightless birds can stand up to six feet tall, and weigh as much as 130 pounds. Add in the fact that cassowaries are some of the most territorial birds on the planet, ...

Not all avians fly, though; ostriches, at nine feet tall, and emus are notable flightless birds, despite having wings. Examples of other avians. Ducks are birds. Therefore they are avians and not ...

A critically endangered New Zealand parrot is receiving much needed help. The flightless Kākāpō, though once widespread in the region, has seen devastating population losses. The usual culprits ...

Researchers have found New Zealand's endangered flightless birds are seeking refuge in the locations where six species of moa last lived before going extinct. An international team of researchers ...

Study in Evolution journal compares flightless bird evolution, revealing how feathers and bodies change when birds lose flight ability. May 21, 2025 e-Paper LOGIN Account ...