Expert: Roger Lederer - 6/10/2008

Question
Hello Roger...

I recently came accross a question printed on the inside of a Beer Bottle lid that read "Native to Australia what is the third largest Bird in the world"

I correctly guessed the Emu thinking that the Largest must be an Ostrich.. but this left me to ponder the second largest in the world.

Then I queried with a friend even further and wondered what the Beer company were basing their results on? Could it be largest in relation to Height?/Length?/Wingspan?/Weight? and so forth... I've searched through Google and I'm finding it beyond difficult to gain answers...

The nature of this question is quite arbitrary I know, but do you think you could provide some statistics relating to at least the top 5 largest birds relating to the parameters set above?

Answer
You are correct in thinking there are a number of ways to measure a bird -height, wingspan, and weight are the usual ways. So emu, rhea, cassowary, ostrich, (Height), grest bustard (weight of largest flying bird), and wandering albatross (flying) fit in those categories. I'm out of town and away from my library so I can't check right now but you might go to your library to look for The Bird Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Facts and Figures on the World' s Birds and Bird's Eye-View: A Practical Compendium for Bird-Lovers by David Bird (really) and my book Amazing Birds (Roger Lederer) to look up those facts.