Re: 11th specimen of Archaeopteryx

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Tue, 25 Oct 2011, Jason Brougham wrote:

> The literature on the Kagu universally mentions that they glide 
> downhill. It never mentions how far. So I wrote to Yves Letocart, who is 
> the Park Supervisor at the Riviere Bleu national Park in New Caledonia. 
> He started working to conserve the birds in 1980 and is probably single 
> handedly responsible for preventing their extinction. He very graciously 
> answered all of my questions and was very helpful. He is a real hero in 
> my opinion.
>
> He insists that Kagus do not glide. He says that they flap, both when 
> running and in short bursts of flight, such as over streams. He measured 
> it and found that, if the stream is 4 meters wide or less, the birds 
> land on the opposite bank. Any wider and they fall in the water and swim 
> to the opposite bank.
> ...

There are actually a number of kagu videos on youtube (used search terms:
kagu bird) and got 53 hits. Only looked at a couple.

This one is interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvdHkgsZRYQ

about a minute in one does a threat display, throwing the wings out and 
raising its crest...