Curious Bird, Undiscovered Exhibit
Posted at 10:58 am February 18, 2009 by Mike Grue
There is a little-known group of bird enclosures off the beaten path at the San Diego Zoo. Along these cages a visitor can see the shy, but friendly, Bartlett’s bleeding heart doves, the active and territorial magpie robins, or the vocal dollarbirds. This little group of enclosures can be seen on the road just west of Polar Bear Plunge. Though it’s a bit out of the way, the enthusiastic visitor is rewarded with the chance to meet some of the most personable birds in the Zoo’s collection.
One such bird is the kagu Rhynochetos jubatus, a flightless bird from the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. This inability to fly makes the kagu very susceptible to introduced predators. As a result, the kagu’s future remains uncertain. Like many flightless birds, kagus are very good at hiding. There have been many mornings where I was convinced that our kagu performed an escape worthy of Houdini only to find out that he was patiently waiting for his breakfast only a few feet away!
Though kagus are very shy and cautious with unfamiliar keepers, they demand attention from their favorites. When I first started working in this area, the kagu hid from me in his “log house” located at the back right of the exhibit. As the months went by, he started coming out of his house and moved closer and closer to me in order to get to his favorite food items (usually worms and crickets). Nowadays, I’m greeted at the door with a magnificent display of outstretched wings and a cocked tail (I think he is more excited to see his food arrive than he is at seeing me).
Kagus are so rare—both in the wild and in zoos—that you won’t be able to see them on exhibit at any other facility in the United States. Don’t worry about this little guy getting lonely, though! A few months ago we introduced a female into the enclosure just next door! Though they were separated by wire mesh, keepers kept a close eye on them for any signs of aggression. Instead of being territorial, the resident male was very inquisitive and welcoming toward his new neighbor. She was cautious of her new surroundings but seemed to take comfort in being next to such a warm and “handsome” friend. The female is a recent hatch from a pair of kagus located at the aviary near The Zoo’s Bus Tour loading. This means that she will be too young to breed for a few years. But when she comes of age, the Zoo hopes to put these two together with hopes of breeding these rare and personable birds.
Mike Grue is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo. Read his previous blog, Harpy Eagles.
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February 18th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
What a beautiful color!
February 18th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Mike, it’s good to read your blog about the Kagu — one of my favorite birds! I’m so glad that our male has a new, gorgeous lady Kagu right next door. Last time I was there, they were both at the fence, staring rather intently at each other! I hope to still be walking the zoo when they finally have a chance to breed! (One aside-type question: On the raptor walk I see two Harpies, Condors, and Sea Eagles, but have seen only one Bearded Vulture. Is he/she alone, or is there a partner in there somewhere?) And congratulations on the baby Harpie Eagle. What glorious birds they all are!!
February 19th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I’m sure I visited this enclosure last year. My daughter and I were just wandering around and found this little road with bird cages. We weren’t even sure if we should go down there, but we did anyway! There were some very interesting birds to see, we couldn’t work out why they were so hidden away. Unfortunately we didn’t see this lovely little Kagu (unless it wasn’t there at that time), but perhaps it was just hiding?
February 19th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Shirley, I’m glad you got a chance to see the kagus bonding! You are right in your observation that there is only one bearded vulture on exhibit. We are actually looking into moving her to a breeding facility in Europe where she should get a chance to be a mother!
February 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Susan, It sounds like you did find the enclosures I wrote about! I’m sure the female was not in her exhibit yet. But the male was almost surely in the exhibit when you came to visit. It’s not unusual for visitors to miss seeing him. Though there are times when he seems to adore the attention of visitors, other times he can be quite shy and will nap in his cave-like “log house.”
February 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Hi Mike – I enjoyed your blog about the beautiful Kagu bird. It makes me happy to read that the male now has a female in the enclosure next door. I’m hoping they will become good friends.
I love birds and always visit the aviaries and all the bird enclosures along the walkways throughout the zoo. We often stop and talk to some of the birds. My husband enjoys whistling at the birds and loves to “get their attention”. It’s a joy when some birds come to the front of the enclosure to say “hello” and interact with us.
I’ve never seen a magpie robin, or a Bartlett’s bleeding heart dove. I’m looking forward to our next trip to the San Diego Zoo. We will be sure to visit these birds when we stop at the Polar Bear Plunge. Thank you.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
The kagu is such a beautiful bird. Would that be a picture of the male kagu? If so, is the female a more muted color as is the case with a lot of species of birds? Your male kagu sounds like he has a charming personality. What female kagu wouldn’t fall for him? They have a lot of time to get to know each other better as neighbors and hopefully they will be parents to lots of baby kagus in a couple of years.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Melissa, you asked if the picture was of a male or a female kagu. Good question, I don’t know! Kagu’s are sexually monomorphic birds–meaning that the male looks practically identical to the female. Though sexual dimorphism is common among many of our songbirds and ducks (northern cardinals and mallards, for example), there are many monomorphic species out there. Most monomorphic species tend to stay with one mate longer than dimorphic males who have to impress a different lady every breeding season! Kagus are typically bonded with one mate for many breeding seasons. This means that the male can assume a more drab and “camouflaged” color.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Mike, thank you for answering my questions! It is interesting how the mating patterns differ between dimorphic species and monomorphic species. I’ve always found it funny that the male birds are much more colorful when there are color variations between males and females. I heard another theory once that male birds are brighter and more colorful so as to distract possible predators from the mother bird and the nest. It makes more sense that the color distinction would relate to breeding, as you explained.
I just visited my local zoo and enjoyed observing the many species of birds there. Some are quite friendly and fly to the front of their enclosures when they see people while others squawk and fly to the back or the top to avoid any possibility of human interaction. One of the white-crested laughing thrushes was quite friendly and chatty. He/she really came to life when I walked up to the cage, chattering away and getting as close to the mesh as possible to get a good look. It was a treat, and I imagine your kagu friend is probably happy to see you apart from the food that you bring to him every day.
Thanks again!
February 24th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Melissa,
I’m glad you enjoyed interacting with the birds at your zoo. I think that the Kagu does enjoy interacting with both the public and his keepers. I think the “distracting male” theory is an interesting one and certainly plausible.
As an interesting side note: even when there is sexual dimorphism, the male is not always the more colorful one! The Madagascar button quail female is the more colorful of the two genders. Having said that, would you be surprised to find out that the parenting role is also reversed? It is the male who takes care of the eggs (incubating) and then the chicks (feeding and protecting)! Maybe the female button quail needs the colorful plumage to impress her potential partner.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Hi Mike! Thanks for the information about the Madagascar button quail. It is good to know that there are some female birds that are the more colorful! I’ve heard of males incubating the eggs in some species and find it endearing for some reason. Best of all is when both parents take turns incubating the eggs, as some species do.
I have to sheepishly correct something from my previous post. I referenced “chattering away and getting as close to the mesh as possible” and think that the phrase qualifies as a misplaced modifier, since I meant to refer to the birds’ chattering. Instead it appears that I was describing myself as chattering and snuggling up to the mesh, which I was not, as tempting as that would have been! LOL
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge. I hope there’ll be more bird stories in upcoming blog posts.
June 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Mike, I don’t know if you’ll read this but I am now confused about the colour of the Kagu. I was watching a BBC documentary series ‘South Pacific’ and there was quite a long part featuring this bird. But it’s grey and looks bigger (22″) than the blue one you have. It has the same latin name and, when I did some checking on the internet only the grey one comes up. No mention was made of a blue Kagu. This has left me rather puzzled now. No matter what the colour though, what a magnificent bird. The way it puffs itself up, both to impress its partner and to see off predators is wonderful.