Northern cassowaryĪ bit smaller than its southern cousin, the northern or single-wattled cassowary is the most recent to be learned of by scientists (in 1860) and is probably the most threatened of the three types. Dutch traders first brought this bird from New Guinea to Europe in 1597.
#CPUSIM BIT ORDER SKIN#
Its casque is bladelike and brownish, and the head, neck, and throat are featherless so bright blue skin can be seen. It lives in the New Guinea lowland rainforests and is slightly less common in northern Queensland, Australia. Who is who? Of the three cassowaries, the southern or double-wattled cassowary is the largest and probably most well known. Powerful legs help the cassowary run up to 31 miles per hour (50 kilometers per hour) through the dense forest underbrush.Ī cassowary can also jump nearly 7 feet (2 meters) straight up into the air and swim like a champ, so the bird is quite good at fending off threats or escaping danger! That long claw also comes in handy when digging for fallen fruit in the leaf litter. What a kick. The cassowary is rightfully considered the most dangerous bird in the world! Each 3-toed foot has a dagger-like claw on the inner toe that is up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) long! The cassowary can slice open any predator or potential threat with a single swift kick.
They seem to be most active at dawn and dusk (called crepuscular behavior), when they search for food, resting in a spot of sun during the day. Their purpose? Perhaps to help indicate the bird’s mood or relay other social cues known only to the cassowaries.Ĭrepuscular creatures. Cassowaries are extremely difficult to observe and study, as they are quick to retreat in their thick rainforest home, so little is known about their behavior.
The wattles are brightly colored blue, red, gold, purple, or white, depending on the species or subspecies. Wonderful wattles. Two of the three cassowary species have wattles, or bare, fleshy pouches of skin that hang from the neck: southern or double-wattled cassowaries and northern or single-wattled cassowaries. The rumble is so low and powerful that wildlife care specialists working with the birds report they can feel it in their bones. Females tend to have a larger casque than males.Ĭassowaries also hiss and whistle to communicate, and clap their bills or rumble when making a threat. We know that both the southern and dwarf cassowary can produce very low frequency sounds, called booms, that help them communicate through the dense rainforest, so perhaps the casque helps with that in some way. The casque could also work much like a hornbill’s casque does in helping the bird make sounds. It could reveal a bird’s age or dominance, or be used as a sort of helmet or shock absorber that protects the bird's head as it pushes through the rainforest underbrush. No one knows for certain why cassowaries have a casque. Although it is quite sturdy, the casque can be squeezed in the middle fairly easily. The casque is made of a sponge-like material and covered with a thick layer of keratin, the same thing our fingernails are made of. Wild headgear! All three cassowary species have a casque, also called a helmet, that starts to develop on top of their head at one to two years of age. Female cassowaries are larger than the males and are even more brightly colored. Long, strong bare quills hang from the bird's tiny wings.Ĭassowaries are generally jet black as adults, but the fabulous skin colors on their face and neck vary according to species and location. These feathers are not designed for flight but for protection in the cassowary's rainforest habitat, keeping the bird dry and safe from the sharp thorns found on many rainforest plants. It is covered in dense, two-quilled black feathers that, from a distance, look like hair. Although the emu is taller, the cassowary is the heaviest bird in Australia and the second heaviest in the world after its cousin, the ostrich. Flightless feathered family. The cassowary is a large, flightless bird most closely related to the emu.
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