Leipoa ocellata
The Malleefowl is one of Australia's most remarkable birds. About the size of a large chook, it builds an incubator rather than a nest to keep the 20 to 30 very large eggs at the right temperature. The incubator is a mound of soil and leaf litter, often over three metres across and a metre from top to bottom.
The Malleefowl's upper feathers form a complicated pattern of grey, brown, white and black, giving good camouflage in the mallee scrub in which it lives. The chicks hatch underground and without any help from their parents dig up to a metre out of the incubating mound. They are fully independent and can fly to safety on their first day. Once common over much of inland southern Australia, Malleefowl are now threatened by change of habitat and by foxes.
Text by John Blyth
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