Torah from Nature

The only "Marsupial" Bird

The letters in the semicircle around the turtle are the initial letters of T’hilim 104:24 - MA RABU MAASECHA HASHEM KULAM B’CHOCHMA ASITA MALA HAARETZ KINYANECHA:
How manifold are your works, Hashem! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
This frequent (but not every week) column is inspired by many of those creatures that fill G-d’s world and give us pause to marvel at the amazing world into which G-d placed us and some insights into the Creator of all.

The only “marsupial” bird

What? you say! Cannot be. Marsupials are mammals. True enough. Of over 4000 species of mammals, about 330 of them give birth to “helpless” young who are then transferred to a pouch in which they continue to develop until they are ready to fully emerge into the world. These pouched mammals are the marsupials.

The Sungrebe or American Finfoot breeds in tropical Central and South America… These tropical birds of swamps and marshes have webbed lobes on their feet… small slim-bodied water bird, typically 28-31 cm long and weighing 130g. It is mainly brown, with a long neck and blackish tail, and a long red bill. The crown and neck are strikingly patterned with black and white stripe, and the feet are black and yellow. The sexes differ in the colour of the cheeks, buff in the female and white for the male. They are shy birds which swim in slow-flowing streams and secluded waterways, sometimes partly submerged… They dive well, but rarely fly unless alarmed. The twig nest is built low in a bush over water; three or four brown-mottled cinnamon eggs are laid, and incubated for about eleven days (which is a relatively short period). The chicks hatch naked, blind, and defenseless. (Altricial is the term for such chicks - as opposed to precocial chicks which are hatched already highly developed and capable of fending for themselves.)
The father, alone, possesses specialized pockets, or pouches, one under each wing, which carry the helpless young, even in flight. Relatively little is known of the sungrebe. It is assumed that the father bird feeds, takes care of, and protects the hatchlings until they can take care of themselves.
The sungrebe is the only known marsupial (-like) bird. And, remember, it’s the male that has the pouches.

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