Megapode
family of birds
The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy legs and feet typical of these terrestrial birds. All are browsers, and all except the malleefowl occupy wooded habitats. Most are brown or black in color. Megapodes are superprecocial, hatching from their eggs in the most mature condition of any bird. They hatch with open eyes, bodily coordination and strength, full wing feathers, and downy body feathers, and are able to run, pursue prey and, in some species, fly on the day they hatch.
Etymology
From the Greek μέγας (mégas = great) and πούς (poús = foot).
Description
Megapodes are medium-sized to large terrestrial birds with large legs and feet with sharp claws, which assist them in the preparation of pits and mounds to incubate their eggs. Megapodes are of three kinds: scrubfowl, brush turkeys, and mallee fowl or lowan. The largest members of the clade are the species of Alectura and Talegalla.
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This entry incorporates text from “Megapode” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.