kiwi

The little spotted kiwi is one of three species of kiwi found in New Zealand. Kiwis have a good sense of smell - rare among birds - which is used to locate worms for food. The nostrils are at the tip of the pointed bill.

Flightless bird found only in New Zealand. It has long hairlike brown plumage, minute wings and tail, and a very long beak with nostrils at the tip. It is nocturnal and insectivorous. It lays one or two white eggs per year, each weighing up to 450 g/15.75 oz. (Species Apteryx australis, family Apterygidae, order Apterygiformes.)

Kiwis live in burrows and a pair will share a territory of up to 40 hectares. The female is about a third bigger than the male and the egg she lays is up to a quarter of her own bodyweight. Incubation takes up to 80 days and the male may carry incubate the egg alone. By 2 weeks the chick is fully independent.

There are three main types of kiwi: brown, great spotted, and little spotted. All kiwi species have declined since European settlement of New Zealand, and the little spotted kiwi is most at risk. It survives only on one small island reservation, which was stocked with birds from the mainland. In 1999 there were fewer than 80,000 kiwis remaining in total.