Megapodes
Megapodes are also known as mound builders and incubator birds. These birds have large feet which they use to make big heaps of vegetation or shallow burrows in which they incubate their eggs. Unusually, their chicks are quite well-developed and have their feathers by the time they hatch so they don't need parental care (precocial).
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Megapode birds
Lost Land of the Volcano
An unusual strategy makes good use of volcanic heat.
Megapode birds have an unusual strategy for rearing their young. They dig deep into volcanic ash to lay their eggs, using the warmth of the volcano to incubate them at the correct temperature. When they hatch, the young are fully feathered and already able to fly.
Featured in the following TV programmes
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Archived
Lost Land of the Volcano: Episode 3
Steve Backshall descends into the crater of a giant extinct volcano in New Guinea.
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Archived
South Pacific: Ocean of Volcanoes
Witness the birth, growth and death of an island in the greatest ocean on Earth.
Genus
Leipoa
Malleefowl (species)
About
The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means large foot (Greek: mega = large, poda = foot), and is a reference to the heavy legs and feet typical of these terrestrial birds. All are browsers, all but the Malleefowl occupy wooded habitats, and most are brown or black coloured. Megapodes are superprecocial, hatching from their eggs in the most mature condition of any birds. They hatch with open eyes, with bodily coordination and strength, with full wing feathers and downy body feathers, able to run, pursue prey, and, in some species, fly on the same day they hatch.
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Scientific Classification
Family: Megapode (Megapodiidae)
Other Galliformes
- Pheasants, partridges and allies (Phasianidae)
Elsewhere on the web
- Megapodes on the Tree of Life (tolweb.org)
- Megapode (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
© MMX
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