Flightless bird also included here. Flightless bird Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species including the well known ratites (ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea and kiwi) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island rail (length 12.5 cm, weight 34.7 g). The largest (both heaviest and tallest) flightless bird, which is also the largest living bird, is the ostrich (2.7 m, 156 kg). Ostriches are farmed for their decorative feathers, meat and their skins, which are used to make leather. Many domesticated birds, such as the domestic chicken and domestic
Tasmanian emu to grassland and shrubland to aid in claiming land for agriculture deprived the birds of habitat. It is known that in 1838, two skin specimens were received by the British Museum. In 2018 the Austrian Natural History Museum in Weina displayed a taxidermed Tasmanian Emu. The subspecies became extinct around 1850, but this date is not very precise: Mainland birds were introduced after "diemenensis"' disappearance (and possibly even when the last birds of the Tasmanian subspecies were still around, hybridizing them out of existence), but the history of emu introductions on Tasmania is not sufficiently documented to allow a more