The world is full of strange and unbelievable species, and so is Birds. There are many birds in the world and there are so many strange birds that you may have never heard of. Let’s see some of the weirdest birds in the world:
1. Great Potoo
Potoo bird is one of the most fascinating and strange birds in the world. It is found in dense forests of Central and South America. Also known as Grand Potoo, it is known for it’s ghostly looks especially because of its huge, bulging yellow eyes. Potoos birds are often be confused Frogmouth, which is very much similar to its looks (alien like). It has enormous eyes giving it ability to see and hunt in dark, making it a nocturnal bird. Though it looks like Owl but it is no where related to Owls. Potoo’s call is a long, haunting moan that sounds like a ghost wailing in the night making people believe that some ghosts are making noise.
2. Shoebill
Shoebill Stork is one the most prehistoric-looking birds in the world that looks from Jurassic era. A Shoebill stork is very large 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) tall, making it one of the tallest birds. Its wings could expand up to 8 feet (2.4 meters). These giant Shoebill are found in wetlands of Central Africa, especially in Uganda, South Sudan, and Zambia. It prefers to live in isolated, quiet areas with plenty of water and tall reeds.
3. Hoatzin
Hoatzin also known as stinkbird because it produces a strong manure-like smell. It is one of the few folivorous birds (leaf-eating birds) that mostly eats leaves, flower, and fruits. Baby Hoatzins even have claws on their wings, just like ancient dinosaur birds. It is found in Amazon Rainforests and Orinoco River Basin in South America. Hoatzin bird is even confusing for scientists, they often debate about where to fit it in Birds evolution, making it one of the strangest birds in the world.
4. Kakapo
This New Zealand Parrot, Kakapo is one of the strangest and most unique birds in the world. Kakapo bird is a world’s only living flightless Parrot, instead of flying it climbs trees and uses its strong legs to run and hop. Unlike other Parrots Kakapo Parrots are active at night and its heaviest parrot species in the world (around 4 kg). It is only found in New Zealand and is now critically endangered because of habitat destruction.
5. Cock of the Rock
There are two types of Cock of the Rock, one is Andean Cock of the Rock and another is Guianan Cock of the Rock. They prefer living in rocky cliffs of forested area near rivers and mostly found in the Andes Mountains and the Guiana Shield. These flamboyant birds play very important role in forest regeneration as they eat lots of fruits and that helps in spreading seeds. Male birds gather in leks and perform crazy dances, head bobbing, wing flapping, and loud calls to impress females during their mating period. Their wild dance is visually attracting that you should watch. Cock of the Rock Bird is one of the most striking and flamboyant birds in the world.
These are some of the strange birds of the world that you can ever encounter. Some of these birds even make weird sounds which often confuses people making them believe in existence of some supernatural beings. There are more strange and beautiful birds in the world that we will see in our upcoming blogs.
Until next time, keep travelling and take care of Nature.