Flightless birds

Our pick of 10 curious birds that have lost the ability to fly

- Leoma Williams

1. Inaccessible Island rail

Endemic to a South Atlantic island with the very on-the-nose name of Inaccessible Island, it's long been a mystery how this tiny brown bird (just 15.5cm long) arrived there in the first place. Genome sequencing has suggested that its closest-living relative is a flighted bird (the dot-winged crake), meaning that the common ancestor of these two had the ability to fly, and the ancestors of the Inaccessible Island rail likely simply flew to their island home.

2. Common ostrich

The heaviest and tallest of all extant birds (let alone just flightless ones), adult males can stand above 2.5m and weigh more than 150kg. Contrary to the myth, these birds don't stick their heads in the sand when scared, but sometimes put their heads in their sandy nests to rotate their eggs, which is probably where the myth originated.

3. Kakapo

Not only is this strange bird the world's only flightless parrot, but it is fat, bright green, nocturnal, very friendly to humans and often moves around by jogging. Unfortunately, these bizarre New Zealand natives are Critically Endangered.

4. Emperor penguin